Cost utility analysis: 'new directions' in setting health care priorities.

It is an inescapable fact of any health care system that consumers are not the agents who decide between technical alternatives. Consequently, the agents making choices need an acceptable framework for measuring and comparing costs and benefits of competing programs. Cost Utility Analysis (CUA) is proposed as the appropriate framework for health care decision making. It combines the significant aspects of health (quality and quantity of life) that are gained from an intervention. At present, there is no other methodology which does this in a way that permits decisions to be based on consumer preference.