Measuring Health burden without Discriminating Against the Disabled (or Elderly)
Speakers:
Nicole J. HassounBinghamton University, State University of New York
Abstract:-
Measures of population health, like the Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY), are important for health policy and planning. Some worry, however, that these measures discriminate against the disabled and elderly. This paper provides an analysis of the disability discrimination and age problems. Then, adapting a fixed-plus-variable framework proposed in welfare economics to the case of health measurement, it proposes a novel measure called the Ethically Adjusted Life Year (EALY) that avoids these problems. The EALY satisfies three axioms delineating the importance of alleviating disability and extending life-years: Disability Monotonicity, Life Year Egalitarianism and Life Year Supremacy and can be adapted to satisfy a stronger axiom that precludes discrimination with respect to life saving interventions based on age: Life Egalitarianism. In one formulation, it can avoid discrimination against the disabled and elderly. It is different from, and has some advantages over some, alternative ways of avoiding discrimination. So, there is reason to consider using the EALY in measuring health burden and the impact of health interventions.