Personal Responsibility for Health: Implications for Policymakers

Rapidly rising health care costs over recent decades have prompted the search for new approaches that would lead to better health outcomes at a lower cost. Attempts to solve this issue resulted in the development of two different approaches: a financial incentive approach and a penalty-based incentive approach. Both approaches emphasize the correlation between individual health-related behaviors and health care costs. The question of personal responsibility for health versus social responsibility for health sparked a national debate. More recently, the debate culminated in the 2006 passage of West Virginia's Medicaid Redesign Program. But this concept is not new. It has existed for decades and has been the driving force behind many health policy decisions. At this point, there is no comprehensive body of work on personal responsibility for health that could serve as a guide to legislators in making well-informed decisions. This presentation will attempt to bridge the gap by providing a review and analysis of existing knowledge of the concept of personal responsibility for health; ethical issues in appeals to personal responsibility for health; political considerations for personal responsibility for health; the role of personal responsibility for health in distribution of healthcare resources. The presentation will also focus on social determinants of unhealthy behaviors and examine the correlation between poverty and decision-making.