ABSTRACT
This chapter explores, from the perspective of contemporary political philosophy, some of the possible benefits of patient subjective health assessment. It examines what information, if any, such assessment might provide which could facilitate improved medical decision-making. More specifically, it asks in what ways standard fixed format questionnaires can inform judgements concerning the just distribution of scarce public medical resources, taking as an example an increasingly popular instrument, the SF-36 Health Survey Questionnaire. In addressing this question, it disregards many other conceivable benefits. Some, for instance, might accrue to patients who are made more confident by the very act of attempting to acquire information from them even if, unbeknown to them, the information acquired was subsequently ignored. Others might accrue to private medical institutions, seeking for commercial reasons to ascertain clients' satisfaction with the service they have purchased. These benefits, however, are not our concern.
