Giving arguments to operationalize health capabilities in economic evaluations of health interventions

• Published in: Journal of social and economic development 2018-10, Vol.20 (2), p.240-255
• Main Author: Téllez Cabrera, Marco Ricardo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Economic Growth; Economic Policy; Economic Sociology; Economics; Economics and Finance; Health; Health care policy; Mental health; Organizational Studies; Quality of life; Research Paper; Social Policy; Valuation
• ISSN: 0972-5792; 2199-6873
• DOI: 10.1007/s40847-018-0069-z

This article argues that health capabilities should be used to generate a measure of health-related quality of life so that health policy avoids expanding to encompass problems related to total well-being. To this end, health should be defined holistically, considering it as internal capabilities related to the physical, mental, and social domains. While different sets of health capabilities can be considered depending on their purpose, a synthesized set composed of health, health agency, material conditions and community dimensions incorporating this holistic definition of health together with external conditions is proposed. Valuation of this set for its use in large-scale projects should be done using worked or corrected preferences, elicited through public discussion and hybrid methods. Finally, a weighted sum ranking, social health-related capability functional together with a sufficientarian perspective, is proposed as a feasible method by which to aggregate individual health capabilities while taking into account concerns about efficiency and equity.