ABSTRACT
One may argue that resource allocation for health, along with the distribution of other social goods, belongs to the universe of distributive justice, considering that all citizens must have the necessary means for an acceptable physical, psychological, and social performance. Otherwise, we cannot achieve individual autonomy, which is the paradigm of full citizenship in a modern society.
Human dignity seems to imply that no citizen can be excluded from the basic health system due to the lack of financial resources. Indeed, all citizens should have equal access to basic social goods and, therefore, to key places in society. This is the principle of fair equality of opportunities, one of the core aspects of Rawls’ difference principle. However, different perspectives of justice also suggest the possibility of universal health coverage.
Justice is an ideal that must be progressively built whether in a specific society or on a global scale. Humanity’s great challenge is to precisely recognize existing intercultural differences and propose sufficiently flexible ideological systems that can be applied in different countries, each with very different levels of social and economic development, without detracting from the ethical principles that should underpin the construction of the 21st-century global society.
