Social responsibility vs. Individual responsibility in Health Care

Abstract

Within the general framework of present-day “Information Society” and in the specific context of so-called “governance in health”, the old issue of individual attribution of responsibility in health comes back to the fore. It is presumed that wider access to knowledge and information on health-related matters implies greater individual responsibility on choices concerning life-styles. My overall hypothesis is that, behind the ideal discourse on informational self-determination and individual co-responsibility in health matters ―a usual discourse in health governance― lies a (neo-liberal or libertarian) strategy of limitation or denial of public health care based on individual responsibility (the argument of desert). Such strategy would justify the corresponding cuts in the distributive power of the State in matters of public health, thus reinforcing original social inequalities. This discourse ignores the fact that access to knowledge is a social determinant of health and, as such, requires strict social responsibility in preventive care in matters of communitarian health.