On the use of willingness-to-pay studies in health

Health policy makers know that their decisions affect the chances of well-being and survival of individuals and that they implicitly are valuing human lives. Evidence with regard to willingness-to-pay (WTP) informs about the value individuals themselves put on these chances; it thus holds the promise of contributing to consistent decisions that lead to an improved benefit-cost ratio of health services for (potential) patients. However, such improvement is more likely if information about WTP is used by competing health insurers rather than the government.