Abstract :
In some respects an attempt to focus on equity in public health results in an
understatement of the extent of the neglect of social justice in the health economics
literature. Despite being the fundamental reason for intervention in
the health sector in virtually every country in the world with a functional
government, equity represents only 2.5% of the cumulative total keywords
used in the Journal of Health Economics in its first 25 years (Phelps, 2007).
Most would agree that the subject matter of public health is health per se and
that in the treatment of unknown beneficiaries priority should be given to activities
which benefit disadvantaged groups. Also for this reason, the restricted
subject area neglects many of the most interesting issues on the researchdevelopmental
agenda. Unsurprisingly, therefore, Cookson, Drummond, and
Weatherly (CDW) stray into more general and controversial issues of health
equity and comments below will not draw a clear distinction between them.
Comments cover five issues: (i) what is equity and how clearly is it defined,
(ii) incorporating equity, (iii) the equity–efficiency distinction, (iv) neglected
issues, and (v) the need for a new framework.
1.
