Health care system resource allocation: an ethical view

All health care systems around the world are faced with the problem of limited resources. Therefore a fair allocation of resources is one of the most important challenges of health systems and it is the main section in the decision-making process. Having a fair health care system and equitable allocation of resources in the health care systems needs to use ethical criteria for distribution of resources. This paper has been developed to present an overview of the financial allocation methods in an ethical perspective. We used some data bases (PUBMED and Google Scholar) and books and papers to study the methods used for the financial allocation in the health care systems. It seems an appropriate combination of population indicators, mortality and additional costs related to rural and remote areas and socio-economic indicators can improve fairness in allocation and distribution of funds in the health care systems