On the relevance of personal characteristics in setting health priorities: a comment on Olsen, Richardson, Dolan and Menzel (2003)

This paper revisits a number of findings in empirical ethics and public choice to consider the sort of preferences that arise when individuals engage in priority setting. Specifically, the normative authority of votes and ranks is questioned because very little of any consequence hangs on the decision to vote one way rather than another. An individual may be in the possession of well-held views as to the form of the social welfare function but express voting preferences based on entirely different objectives. The relevance (moral or otherwise) of personal characteristics when setting health care priorities is therefore reconsidered, taking appropriate account of incentive structures and the nature of voting preferences.