Health policy
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Under the heading of liberal egalitarianism, Cappelen and Norheim present a novel approach regarding how we are to assess health disadvantages reflecting people's choices. It seeks to uphold a commitment to principles of responsibility and egalitarianism, while avoiding objections that such theories fail for humanitarian, liberal or fairness reasons. The approach draws a line between those of such diseases which are life-threatening, costly to treat relative to income or undermining important political capabilities and those which are not. ⋯ It consists of two elements, which can come into tension with each other when concerns for severity of disease and personal responsibility recommend the employment of different elements. Furthermore, as it stands, the approach is incomplete because it seems unable to address important non-monetary shortages, such as the organ shortage. Finally, it is not apparent how the approach is able to address the significant ways in which social circumstances influences people's choices in health and their ability to stay healthy.
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The objectives of this study were to synthesize and compare population characteristics associated with frequent emergency department (ED) use within and across healthcare systems. ⋯ Observed similarities suggest that frequent ED use may not differ from one healthcare system to the next. With increasing need to develop solutions for high ED utilization world-wide, targeted efforts must be made to bolster dissemination and uptake of effective interventions across healthcare contexts.