Objectives Various techniques are used to estimate health state utility weights including: Time Trade off, Standard Gamble and Discrete Choice Experiments. These methods have exhibited limitations in terms of complexity, validity and reliability. This research uses a novel method for eliciting a monetary value of health related quality of life based upon experimental auctions.

Methods A convenient sample (n=120) from a population of university staff and students were invited to participate in 24 auctions with each auction comprising of five participants. In each auction, health states were described by the common EQ-5D-3L multi-attribute utility instrument. The mean annualised budget share value for each health state was estimated and correlated against the corresponding Australian utility weights previously estimated from the Time-Trade-Off approach.

Results The estimated monetary value of QALY in Australia using an experimental auction approach was consistent with previous estimates using willingness to pay methods and implied thresholds used by funding bodies in Australia (PBAC and MSAC).

Conclusions Greater empirical estimates of willingness to pay thresholds or monetary value of health have been a significant limitation in the adoption of economic evaluations of health care and technologies. Experimental auctions provide a novel approach to estimating reliable monetary values of health related quality of life.