WHAT IS THE HEALTH CAPABILITY PARADIGM?
A vision that everyone deserves the ability to lead objectively good lives
The health capability paradigm is a theoretical framework that justifies the moral and practical significance of health, health capability, and the right to health. It is rooted in the idea that the health goals of a just society are to ensure all individuals are able to be healthy.
This theory is a social scientific approach with a moral foundation, operating at the intersection of multiple disciplines like economics, philosophy, political science, and basic science. By advancing legal, social, and political changes at both the human and societal level, the health capability paradigm seeks to promote health and social equity through individual-level interventions and justice-driven policies, institutions, and practices.
It focuses on what individuals are actually able to be and do in an optimal environment versus their current environment. It provides a foundation for prioritizing needs and allocating resources, supporting all individuals in developing their individual health agency and achieving better health outcomes.
This approach values individuals, providers, and institutions working together to enable all to be healthy and reduce health capability gaps for individuals and populations. It offers a set of values and principles for assessing existing institutions, policies, and practices for reform. Therefore, while the health capability paradigm offers a theoretical framework of justice for health, health policy, and public health, it also provides a standard against which to measure our progress.
The health capability paradigm is a theory like no other, presenting the case that health and the capability for health itself should be the central focus for evaluating justice in health policy. In order to sustain a functioning health care system, positively shape public health, and achieve health justice for all, we must encourage individual agency, collective action, and a shared substantive vision – a vision that everyone deserves the ability to lead objectively good lives.