Criteria for the allocation of medical resources: Citizens’ perspectives

Aim of this research was to assess which criteria laypeople use to evaluate the importance of treatments the Italian National Health Service should or should not guarantee and the relationship with their degree of importance. A convenience sample of 100 individuals (22 to 65yrs-old), were asked to evaluate 52 treatments partly included and partly not included into the Essential Assistance Levels (LEA). Results showed that lay people employ a wide range of criteria, only part of which correspond to those traditionally investigated in the psychosocial literature. Two main dimensions emerge as organizing principles underlying their judgments, referring to NHS function (prevention vs treatment) and to the opportunity to focus on specific health needs of particular categories of citizens (selectivity).