Right-sizing medical care

Opponents of health care reform constantly warn that it would lead to "the rationing of care." Take the Wall Street Journal’s editorial against reform that concludes, “The only possible outcome will be the nationalization of U.S. health markets, which will mean that almost all care will be rationed by politics."

But what does that really mean? David Leonhardt of the New York Times has an interesting article exploring the issue quite well. "The choice isn’t between rationing and not rationing," writes Leonhardt. "It’s between rationing well and rationing badly. Given that the United States devotes far more of its economy to health care than other rich countries, and gets worse results by many measures, it’s hard to argue that we are now rationing very rationally."

Our current system rations health care resources in several ways, including:

• by providing too little care to the uninsured and the underinsured;
• by favoring costly unproven treatments at the price of better care;
• by underpaying nurses and general practitioners who provide preventative care;
• by slowing wage growth to pay for rising health care costs;
• and by promoting poor access to after hours care, to name just a few.

Smart reform could tackle all of these problems and use our health care resources to provide better care to more Americans. That’s what it’s all about. Leonhardt sums it up, "all the noise about rationing is not really a courageous stand against less medical care. It’s a utopian stand against better medical care."

—Kevin McCarthy, associate editor 

To find out what we're doing to help fix the system, see our Guide to Health-Care Reform.

Image: A. www.viajar24h.com

Comments

[E McElroy]

Whether one agrees or not, I think it's quite clear what the Wall St. Journal editorial means. What is completely unclear is the basis for your allegations. Your entry has all the sophistication of office water cooler chatter. In the future, can we please have more documentation and less emotion. Thanks.

[E. Nowak]

This argument is a canard because we ALREADY have rationing -- by insurance companies. I'm being denied a surgery right now because it's not covered by my health insurance because, even though it's a proven treatment, it's costly. Ironically, this surgery IS covered by Medicare/Medicaid.