VALUATION OF FUTURE HEALTH, COSTS AND SAVINGS NEEDS FURTHER REVIEW

Erasmus, The Netherlands-The assessment of costs and benefits of new and existing medical interventions has gained importance in policy decisions about the health care package.

In these economic analyses it is common practice that health benefits, costs and savings resulting from medical interventions receive lower weight when they occur in the future as opposed to the present. This puts interventions with long-term consequences, such as vaccination or smoking cessation programmes, at a disadvantage.

This practice of discounting future health and costs is under criticism. Especially it is questioned whether health and money should be equally discounted. A recent study, “Social time preferences for health and money elicited with a choice experiment”, published in Value in Health, describes an experiment by which weights for future health benefits and costs were derived from choices by healthcare professionals and policy makers between hypothetical medical interventions. Respondents gave greater weight to future health benefits than future costs, and this weight was higher than normally applied in economic assessments. The study was co-authored by Willem Jan Meerding, Gouke Bonsel, Werner Brouwer, Marja Stuifbergen and Marie-Louise Essink-Bot of Erasmus Medical Center.

Says Dr. Meerding, “While theoretical arguments have been put forward that question the discounted utility model with uniform and constant discount rates, it is important that these are in line with observed preferences. Although the choices in this experiment were hypothetical and people may choose differently in real life, we described the scenarios as realistic as possible. The discounting practice needs further review.”

Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based.  The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 4,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

For more information: www.ispor.org.

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