Should Priority Setting Also Be Concerned About Profound Socio-Economic Transformations? A Response to Recent Commentary

In his comment1 on the editorial “Global Developments in Priority-Setting in Health” authored by Baltussen et al, Dr. Ted Schrecker provides a useful summary of the main reasons underlying the current degree of scarcity in healthcare systems worldwide. Indeed, measures of fiscal austerity, rising rates of social inequality and practices of fiscal evasion, among other things, have certainly contributed to the allocation of financial resources to public services at levels far below what we could have in a more just and cooperative world. Yet, what Dr. Schrecker misses in his paper is that working on the development of better strategies of priority-setting to allocate resources does not necessarily mean endorsing the status quo. This is a false polarization that, besides highlighting non-existent differences, obscures important similarities between progressive public health researchers.