Linking Health Outcomes to Funding RichardsonJeff 2017 This note is the edited transcript of a commentary delivered at the 1999 Australian Health Outcomes Conference held in Canberra in July 1999. The commentary considers the currently popular argument that because health improvement is the main objective of health programs or health services then payment for the program or service should be linked to the size of the health improvement. It is argued that this conclusion violates the economic theory for achieving the best possible outcome and that implementation of such a pricing scale would be both impracticable and harmful.