Utilitarianism In Health Care

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Recommended: Healthcare human right or privilege

Utilitarianism can be used to describe the reasons why healthcare should be made available universally; why maximization of access to healthcare should be pursued for the greatest number of people (Wilson). Utilitarianism is a theory of consequences, in which the results of actions should determine their moral value. It can be summarized by the greatest happiness principle, which John Stuart Mill describes as “happiness is desirable, and the only thing desirable, as an end; all other things being only desirable as means to that end” (Wilson). For Mill, pleasure is the prime motivator, and all beings must seek out maximum pleasure for themselves and others. This principle can be used to judge the morality of healthcare policies in terms of how they provide access to healthcare for the greatest number of people. In order to make the claim that healthcare is a human right is not sufficient; we must then be able to justify its expansion by illustrating its benefits (Wilson).
In order for healthcare to be supported by utilitarianism, we must look at the consequences of healthcare implementation to ensure that it uses resources in a way that maximizes good for the greatest number of people. In ‘The Impact of Nearly Universal Insurance Coverage on Health Care Utilization and Health: Evidence from Medicare’, the authors examine individuals before and after they become eligible for healthcare, in an effort to determine differences in usage of medical services and improvement of health outcome with the acquirement of health insurance (Coile). In the United States in 2002, insurance coverage jumps at age sixty-five from 90% to 98% of the population. The authors discovered that previous to age sixty-five, individuals without health insuranc...

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... the like” (“John Rawls And The Veil Of Ignorance”), and no one knows the type of society into which they will be entering. Rawls then encourages the reader to make decisions regarding the Social Contract while maintaining a position behind the Veil of Ignorance. The rationale for this exercise is to show the reader that they often make decisions regarding political and social policies from a specific unique perspective, without regard to how that policy might affect others than themselves. Rawls explains “if a man knew that he was wealthy, he might find it rational to advance the principle that various taxes for welfare measures be counted unjust; if he knew that he were poor, he would most likely propose the contrary principle” (“John Rawls And The Veil Of Ignorance”), so it is best to place restrictions by imagining a situation without this personal information.

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