Author
Listed:
- Sami Isaac
(The University of Sydney)
- Andrew J. McLachlan
(The University of Sydney)
- Betty Chaar
(The University of Sydney)
Abstract
Objectives To investigate the current literature on healthcare policies and cost analyses around international Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) laws. The study design is a mapping literature review following Preferred-Reporting-Items-for-Systematic-Reviews-and-Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Methods Original research articles published between January 1990 to March 2023, investigating the financial cost and healthcare budget effect of VAD laws internationally. Citations were screened for relevance and eligibility, and any non-full-text research that did not explore cost analysis was excluded. The following data sources were screened: MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and any relevant international health authority annual reports were also reviewed. Results Of the 2790 screened articles, eight studies met the inclusion criteria and three were included in the mapping review. The reviewed studies included prospective studies, two Canadian and one US. Only one of the Canadian studies provided a cost analysis using data from current VAD laws. All three studies showed VAD laws would reduce healthcare spending, with the US approximating $627million in 1995. Canada approximating $17.1 to $77.1million in 2017 and $86.9 to $149.0million in 2021, overall, leading to an average percentage reduction in costs of approximately 87% compared to original costs of end-of-life care. Conclusion This review identifies a scarcity in cost-analysis literature and provides a summary of the latest international VAD laws, from which a potential cost reduction is apparent. The absence of retrospectively collated financial VAD data highlights a need for future research to inform policymakers of the economic factors affecting current policies with a need for annual fiscal reports and to optimise future legislative frameworks internationally.
Suggested Citation
Sami Isaac & Andrew J. McLachlan & Betty Chaar, 2024.
"Policies and cost analyses of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws – a mapping review & analysis,"
Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
Handle:
RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:14:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-024-00547-x
DOI: 10.1186/s13561-024-00547-x
Download full text from publisher
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:14:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-024-00547-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13561 .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.