"Primary" rationing of health services in ageing societies--a normative analysis.

While most of the debate on "rationing in health care" focusses on the distribution of scarce medical resources among competing needs, which we propose to call "secondary rationing," this paper is concerned with "primary rationing," i.e., the conscious decision by society to limit the amount of resources devoted to a collectively financed health care system. Based upon a number of transparent normative criteria, we analyze whether primary rationing should be performed and, if so, what type should be chosen (hard vs. soft, explicit vs. implicit). Finally we discuss whether age should be used as a criterion in any systematic attempt at primary rationing of health care.