Legal Commentary

Rationing health care

By Tom Kirkendall

One of the common complaints heard regarding government-controlled, single payor health care finance systems is that they ration care in a manner that often results in long delays for even routine procedures.

However, as this MedPage blog post points out, private providers in America's Byzantine health care finance system also ration care, and the results aren't all that satisfying, either.

Meanwhile, this NY Times article reports on how many private physicians are rationing care by choosing not to accept patients who use Medicare for payment because the net reimbursement for services rendered is simply not worth it. The article also notes the growing trend of physicians opting for a concierge practice, a development that is the subject of earlier posts here and here.

Finally, Arnold Kling, who has done some of the best thinking on health care finance in the blogosphere over the past five years, sums up a big problem with the way in which the American system currently rations care:

In America, about 90 percent of health care spending is paid for by third parties--most individuals do not fend for themselves.  .  .  . My view of the American health care system is that it hardly rations health care at all. That is why we spend so much more than other countries. I wish we put more responsibility on individuals. Instead, we have this delusion that we cannot possibly afford health care if we pay for it individually, but of course we can afford it if we pay for it collectively.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on April 08, 2009 (boomark / email).