Discounting and decision making in the economic evaluation of health-care technologies

Discounting costs and health benefits in cost-effectiveness analysis has been the subject of recent debate – some authors suggesting a common rate for both and others suggesting a lower rate for health. We show how these views turn on key judgments of fact and value: on whether the social objective is to maximise discounted health outcomes or the present consumption value of health; on whether the budget for health care is fixed; on the expected...