The economics of ageing: On the attitude of Swedish people to the distribution of health care resources between the young and the old

The Swedish Priorities Investigation [1] proposes that no account should be taken of a patient's age when allocating health care resources. Measures to save an old person's life are to be given the same priority as measures to save a young person's life. In the present study it is shown that the attitude of the Swedish population to this age-related problem is dramatically different from that laid down in the priorities investigation. On average, people are willing to sacrifice thirty-five 70-year-olds to save one 30-year-old. It is also shown that a measure which increases life-expectancy by 1 year, conditional on having survived until the age of 75 years, is given a low weighting, The (maximum) insurance premium the average Swede is willing to pay for such a programme is about pound 700.