The Benchmarks of Fairness and Solidarity
Summary
Two concepts are often used in the arrangement of morally acceptable health care systems:
Justice and Solidarity. In this paper I will discuss Daniels’ benchmarks of fairness, which can
be seen as a method to apply a Rawlsian conception of justice to health care systems. The
benchmarks of fairness have been greatly influential in designing health care systems around
the world. However, there are three problems with applying a Rawlsian conception of justice
to health care. Firstly, a justice-only approach to health care could create a hostile attitude
between different groups in society. Secondly, a justice-only approach tends to create
humiliating procedures to determine people’s rightful share of societies’ resources. And
thirdly, in applying a Rawlsian conception of justice to health care systems Daniels excludes
the severely disabled from the scope of distributive justice. I argue that these three
problems can be fixed by adding Ter Meulen’s conception of solidarity as a justification for
the benchmarks of fairness.