Health priority setting as a process of social participation

Since November 2001 health services and treatments to be guaranteed to all citizens have been included into the LEA (DPCM 29/11/2001), through which the limits and priorities of action of the National Health Service for what concerns health policies are established. The introduction of LEA called the attention on the need to involve also lay members (the citizens), besides experts, in the definition of health policies, for both economic and ethical reasons. Research studies investigating citizens' opinions on health priorities confirm that, in their allocation decision, they tend to employ multiple criteria, which do not always correspond to those employed by "experts". Several questions remain open, however, owing to the possible impact of methodological biases.