'Threats' to and hopes for estimating benefits

In a recent paper in this journal, Andrew Lloyd reviewed some potential threats to the estimation of health care benefits in monetary terms. Particular emphasis was placed on the extent to which the use of non-compensatory heuristics may distort the results. Although it is useful to be reminded of these problems, Lloyd's paper does not do justice to the attention such issues have already received, and continue to receive, within Health Economics. The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it seeks to provide a more balanced and comprehensive view of the evidence by considering some of the methodological work that health economists have conducted in many of the areas pointed out by Lloyd. Secondly, and more importantly, it suggests ways to combine the economic and psychological views of human decision-making, providing a much more positive perspective to all those researchers out there who recognize the necessity of using stated preference methods to inform health policy.