The central idea behind this book is that we lack consensus on principles for allocating medical resources, and in the absence of such a consensus we must develop and rely on a fair decision-making process for setting limits on health care. The authors provide an analysis of the current situation, reviewing typical solutions, before describing their own approach. The audience for the book is global since the problem of limited resources cuts across all types of health care systems whether or not they have universal coverage.

In its first edition Setting Limits Fairly stimulated considerable work on setting priorities in health care. The second edition includes a new chapter on the international response to accountability for reasonableness and two new chapters on applications of the approach in developing countries and in human rights approaches to health.