Rationing health care services | Racionamento dos cuidados de saúde

Limited resources in the health sector force a process of choice between
alternative health care programs and services and patients or groups of
patients who will receive care. In the absence of a price mechanism,
the priority-setting process serves to allocate scarce resources among
competing uses, and is thus a form of rationing. Traditionally, implicit
approaches have dominated the health sector's decision-making, mostly
by physicians. However, in the face of increasing budget constraints and
rising patient expectations, more explicit and socially acceptable
priority-setting practices are needed. Internationally, the development
of explicit prioritization has proven difficult and controversial.