Health resource allocation for vulnerable populations

Abstract

Abstract Should vulnerable populations receive special moral concern in the prioritization and allocation of health care and other resources and programs that affect health? The meaning of this question is not clear on its face. By “vulnerable populations” I shall follow both the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) account as populations with special needs for or barriers to care from a variety of conditions or circumstances and less able than others to safeguard their own needs and interests and Lu Ann Aday’s account of at-risk populations as populations or groups at high relative risk of suffering poor physical, psychological, and/or social health (AHRQ, 1999; Aday, 1993).