Table 3

Overview of centralized priority setting efforts

Country
Principles, guidelines, recommendations
     Year

     Process


Norway
Priority principles:
     1987/1997 Lønning Committee I and II
     • Severity

     • Potential effect

     • Cost-effectiveness

Priority groups based on severity (and later funding):

     • Fundamental

     • Supplementary

     • Low priority

     • No public funding

The Netherlands
Sieves/filters to determine basic package of services:
     1992/1995 Dutch Committee on Choices in Health Care (Dunning Committee)
     • Is care necessary?

     • Is care efficient?

     • Is care effective?

     • Can care be left up to individual responsibility?

Sweden
Ethical platform principles:
     1993/1995 Commission of Parliament members and experts
     • Human dignity

     • Need and solidarity

     • Cost-efficiency

Political/administrative and clinical priority groups:

     • Life-threatening acute diseases, severe chronic diseases and palliative terminal care

     • Prevention and habilitation/rehabilitation

     • Less severe acute diseases

     • Borderline cases

     • Care for reasons other than disease

Denmark
Core values:
     1997 Danish Council of Ethics
     • Equal human worth

     • Solidarity

     • Security and safety

     • Freedom and self-determination

General goal, framed in terms of "opportunity for self-expression...irrespective of social background and economic ability"

Partial goals:

     • Social and geographical equity

     • Quality

     • Cost-effectiveness

     • Democracy and consumer influence

Israel
Criteria for prioritization of recommended technologies:
     1995 Medical Technology Forum and National Advisory Committee, In response to new National Health Insurance Law
     • Life-saving technology with full recovery

     • Potential to prevent mortality or morbidity

     • Number of patients to benefit

     • Financial burden on society and the patient

     • New technology for diseases with no alternative treatments available

     • Brings increase in longevity and quality of life

     • Benefits of reducing morbidity vs. improving quality of life

     • Net gain is higher than short- or long-term cost

     • Funding of efficacious treatment than is expensive to the individual, but of reasonable cost to society

New Zealand
Set out principles to guide priority setting decisions:
     Yearly, beginning in 1993 Core Services Committee/National Health Committee
     • Effectiveness

     • Efficiency

     • Equity

     • Acceptability

'Consensus conferences' for specialized services;

Recommend core services for given year

Oregon (US)
Developed Quality of Well-Being Scale;
     Beginning in 1989 Health Services Commission
Used scale to establish cost-effectiveness rankings;

Revised rankings after public backlash;

Continued to use ranked list of condition-treatment pairs

Recently more emphasis on evidence base for recommendations

UK
Appraisal of new health technologies;
     Ongoing, beginning in 1999 National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE)
Development of clinical guidelines;

Explicit use of cost-effectiveness evaluations

Appeal possible on narrow grounds

Sabik and Lie International Journal for Equity in Health 2008 7:4   doi:10.1186/1475-9276-7-4