Basic Human Functional Capabilities as the Currency of Sufficientarian Distribution in Health Care

The formulation of a just social scheme of resource allocation in health care requires that we define the currency of justice and present a prioritization principle. This chapter presents several assumptions that underlie the theoretical background of its account of distributive justice in health care, namely sufficiency of basic human functional capabilities. The focus, however, is on two arguments. First, it is claimed that the currency of justice in health care is basic human functional capabilities, which are delineated in a list of nine key systems. Second, the chapter advocates for sufficiency and argues that legitimate claims of injustice can only be presented by those who are located (or might possibly fall) beneath the sufficiency threshold. The chapter provides two criteria for determining the severity of an individual’s position, which will also serve for evaluating the significance of benefits