On rationing

DrRich has an entire blog devoted to it – The Covert Rationing Blog. Any single payer system must adopt it. This report from the BBC makes the point clear – NHS rationing rife, say doctors

Many experts fear the situation will get worse with increasing demands on the health service made by the ageing population and expected advances in medicines.

Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s GPs committee, said: “There is not much honesty and openness about this.

“The NHS could spend whatever you gave it, but it obviously works with a limited budget so we urgently need to have a debate about what can be provided.

“Trusts are already being forced into this but the political parties are not talking about it.”

And Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, which represents NHS trusts, added: “Rationing is the great unspoken reality.

“The only people who refuse to mention the ‘r-word’ are the media and the politicians, who continue to want to promise everything for everyone in order to win elections.”

One does not need an economics degree to work through the reasoning. If I give you X dollars to spend and you have X + Y dollars of demand, then you must deny Y dollars of care.

As DrRich points out, the current US system also rations, albeit illogically and covertly.

We need (and will not likely get) a logical plan for rationing health care costs. We must prioritize, understanding that not all patients will receive every test and every treat.

The alternative is to spend an ever increasing percentage of our dollars on health care. That is a possible alternative, and some would argue a reasonable alternative.

But few politicians will discuss these issues frankly because the discussions will not win votes. The discussions require stage 2 and stage 3 thinking, yet the electorate generally responds to stage 1 thinking. Sigh!