Racionamento dos cuidados de saúde: problemática inerente = Rationing health care services: an inherent issue.

Abstract

Limited resources in the health sector a process of choice between alternative health care programs and services and patients or groups of patients who will receive care. In the absence of a price mechanism, the priority-setting process serves to allocate scarce resources among competing uses, and is thus a form of rationing. tradicionally, implicit approaches have dominated the haelth sector's decisio-making, mostly by physicians. However, in the face of increasing budget constrains and raising patient expectations, more explicit and socially acceptable priority-setting practices are needed. Internationally, the development of explicit priorization has proven difficult and controversial.