Governance on priority setting of health resource allocation:International research review and its implication for China / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

Priority setting of health resource allocation depends on effective and comprehensive government-based stewardship, the national research of which lacks comprehensive considerations. The paper articulates the trend of western research from solo economic analysis to a combined comprehension of political economies, systemic con-straints and health financing, to consider the scope, strategy and enforced framework for government rationing within a larger organizational and political context. In the health decision-making practice, the best formula for interdiscipli-nary tools is a test of stewardship capacity. A multi-disciplinary approach from the perspectives of politics, health e-conomies, philosophy, law and evidence-based medicine must be adopted for the priority setting of health resource al-location. Finally, a clear stewardship phased objective is proposed as well as strategies, with emphasis on health de-cisions from “stewardship as structure” to “stewardship as a process” with challenges that lie ahead.