EUnetHTA Adaptation Glossary (beta)

Description of the concept

The concept of affordability is related to the capacity of being affordable. Something is affordable when one can manage it in terms of time, money or resources.
There is another context in which this term is used, which is related to the capacity to provide something.
In HTA it should be a criteria to take into account when one has to make decisions about inclusión or exclusion of some intervention, treatment or diagnostic procedure, by the means of being able to cope within the budget and resources of each country.

Problems in interpretation

One of the problems in interpretation could be to assume that something is not affordable because it is expensive. This would not be correct because what is affordable for one person might not be affordable for another person, even though it has the same price. It is not a question of price, but of its cost in the context of the budget and resources of each health care system.
Another problem is that one might only use it in the context of financial aspects and sometimes it refers to other aspects as affordable such as resources or time.

Examples of how this term is used in different countries
Reading the scientific literature we can find the use of this term in different contexts, but basically it seems to have the same meaning in all countries. The references used to present examples of the use of the term of affordability come from different countries as Germany, Sweden, India, USA, United Kingdom and Italy.
 
- Financial context: Frequently the word affordability is used in monetary terms:
- Availability of time: Affordability can be referred to with reference to time limits.
- Affordability can be considered as a criteria to select interventions.
- Affordability can be seen as a criterion related to access to services.