The Benchmarks of Fairness and Solidarity

Abstract

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.