Rationing

Will America have to consider rationing health care? Perhaps the more accurate question is whether America will ration health care more than it does right now. Let’s be honest, we already ration kidney dialysis and organ transplants (kidneys, hearts) on the basis of objective (and sometimes subjective) criteria. But is more rationing of health care on the way?

Many people believe that it is because of a funding item in the stimulus package. It allocates $1.1 billion into medical “comparative effectiveness research.” The researchers will compare various drug treatments, surgical treatments, and medical devices. A council will determine which treatments and devices are effective and which ones are too costly and ineffective. It doesn’t take much imagination to see where this is leading.

Charles Krauthammer believes that: “Once you establish what is ‘best practice’ for expensive operations, medical tests and aggressive therapies, you’ve laid the premise for funding some and denying others.” After all, almost half of a person’s lifetime health costs are consumer in the last six months of life.

Krauthammer points out that the National Health Service in the UK can deny treatments it does not deem cost-effective. As you get older, the cost-effectiveness of treatment plummets. In Canada, they ration health care by queuing. Patients sometimes wait a long time for elective procedures.

Fred Barnes, writing in The Weekly Standard, believes that cost-cutting in Canada may have cost the life of actress Natasha Richardson after her ski accident. He notes: “The nearby hospital had no scanning equipment or neurosurgeons, and there was no helicopter to fly her to a trauma center. By the time she arrived at one, she was brain dead. Why wasn’t proper treatment and equipment on hand? Government had decided not to pay for them.”

Obviously there were other factors involved in Natasha Richardson’s death that had nothing to do with the Canadian health care system. But you have to admit that equipment and personnel were missing because of government cost-cutting.

Is America ready for more rationing? Members of Congress better consider that question as they begin deliberations on changing our current health care system. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.