Small Biz Health Care Daily: Rationing and the “Experts”

On August 25, a news story in the New York Times reported the following: “‘Rationing.’ It is what many people say they fear most from an overhaul of the health care system — the prospect of the federal government’s limiting the medical care they can receive. Even some people who now have private health insurance through their employers have expressed this concern in opinion polls and public forums. They say they worry that the enormous price tag for providing care to tens of millions of additional Americans will eventually force everyone else to make do with less. Is that a realistic fear? Policy experts say people are rightly concerned about the nation’s health care costs. But they also say there is nothing in the current proposals in Washington to suggest that the country is likely to embark on a system of medical rationing anytime soon.” The article went on to quote four “experts.”

Raymond J. Keating, chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, stated:

“Well, if the New York Times declares in a commentary piece dressed up as news that health care rationing is not a concern, then I guess we should all feel at ease. Oh please! Why didn’t the reporter or editors go to any of the many experts who understand economics and history, and therefore understand that when government gets involved in health care, the only means it has to control costs in the end are price controls and rationing care? Ironically, some of the experts included point out that government cannot now control costs, nor would it be able to control costs under the health care reforms being pushed. With that being the case, what happens eventually? The track record elsewhere and simple economics make clear that government turns to schemes like price controls and rationing, which mean that people fail to get the health care they need.”