We Have No Choice But to Ration Health Care

Why We Must Ration Health Care - NYTimes.com:

After reading the first few paragraphs of this piece, I was convinced that Singer is absolutely correct that health care rationing MUST be part of the equation in revamping our U.S. health care system. I have believed this from the onset of the debate a few years ago. Those who don't believe that rationing is essential are in denial.

Those who contend that 'health care is a basic human right' are obliged to answer the question: how much care and at what cost?

We should demand that our politicians talk about this reality. If they avoid it, they are disingenuous or dishonest or both. We simply cannot afford to treat every person for every possible condition with all possible means.

Of course, the devil is in the details. But without a discussion of rationing in the U.S. before we commit to an enormous change in the system, we will have done ourselves a terrible disservice. Without cost controls, including rationing of services and care, not just in the hard cases that Singer uses as examples, but more generally, we will have built a system doomed to fail.

We should demand that our politicians, particularly those supporting single-payer health care to explain their position on rationing. In addition, we should ask them to explain to us how the proposal now in Congress deals with rationing.

TeamObama and others have a basic responsibility, as does the media, to put this subject on the table now.

Kudos to the times for giving the issue 'front and center' treatment.

"The case for explicit health care rationing in the United States starts with the difficulty of thinking of any other way in which we can continue to provide adequate health care to people on Medicaid and Medicare, let alone extend coverage to those who do not now have it. Health-insurance premiums have more than doubled in a decade, rising four times faster than wages. In May, Medicare’s trustees warned that the program’s biggest fund is heading for insolvency in just eight years. Health care now absorbs about one dollar in every six the nation spends, a figure that far exceeds the share spent by any other nation. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it is on track to double by 2035."

"Rationing health care means getting value for the billions we are spending by setting limits on which treatments should be paid for from the public purse. If we ration we won’t be writing blank checks to pharmaceutical companies for their patented drugs, nor paying for whatever procedures doctors choose to recommend. When public funds subsidize health care or provide it directly, it is crazy not to try to get value for money. The debate over health care reform in the United States should start from the premise that some form of health care rationing is both inescapable and desirable. Then we can ask, What is the best way to do it?"