The value of health

Wim Groot¹ and Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink²

¹Department of Health Organization, Policy and Economics (HOPE), Maastricht University Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht, The Netherlands. Postoffice Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

²"Scholar" Research Center for Education and Labor Market, University of Amsterdam Department of General Economics, Roetersstraat 11, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands

author email corresponding author email

BMC Health Services Research 2008, 8:136doi:10.1186/1472-6963-8-136


Published:	25 June 2008

Abstract

Background

A major problem in cost-effectiveness studies is where to draw the line between interventions which are cost-effective and those who are not. Lacking a notion about the value of a QALY, all ultimate values to the cost-effectiveness ratio are essentially arbitrary.

Methods

This paper presents a simple empirical model to estimate the compensating income variation of diseases and health problems. The model is estimated using data for the Netherlands.

Results

The compensating income variation is between €20,000 and €90,000. This is higher than most of the ultimate values used by policy-makers to decide whether an intervention is cost-effective. Our figures are roughly similar to those found in studies about the value of a statistical life year.

Conclusion

Estimates on the compensating income variation of diseases and health problems may provide useful information on the maximum acceptable cost-effectiveness ratio of medical interventions than those currently used by policy makers.