SA Values and Ethics - for UHC

As the government works toward progressive realisation of the Constitutional right to health care and the promises of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), there will be challenging decisions about what health services and health interventions will or will not be covered with a limited budget. As part of ongoing discussions about a National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, there is a commitment to establishing a health priority-setting process to navigate tough choices about which health services, products, and programmes to publicly funded.

Priority-setting for health raises many ethics questions about how to use scarce resources. Decision-makers must balance the needs of individuals with the broader health needs of the population, while also taking into account equity considerations and the many ways that health interventions impact other aspects of wellbeing.
An ethics framework can help navigate these challenging decisions and tradeoffs, providing a method and structure for exploring morally relevant ethics considerations associated with a decision. When used in the context of health priority-setting it can help ensure that, for every proposed health intervention, consideration is given to:
• Identifying and evaluating relevant social values;
• Acknowledging, discussing, and explaining any trade-offs when a decision involves promoting one social value at the expense of another;
• Transparently explaining and justifying recommendations to the public.