Rationing

Now that word is out that the House healthcare bill provides that more than half the increased healthcare costs will be achieved by cuts in Medicare, we are hearing a lot about rationing healthcare (HC) for seniors.

I realize that many readers of this blog, like me, are on Medicare or close to it. Nevertheless, I must point out the reality that rationing of HC for seniors is coming regardless (or, as they say in New York, irregardless) of whether this bill becomes law or not. That’s because the system is quickly going broke even before the leading edge of the baby-boom generation reaches age 65.

Don’t get me wrong. I in no way support this bill or any plan to increase government involvement in HC. But remember, Medicare is government-run HC, i.e., socialized medicine. One of the main criticisms of the House plan is that it adds millions more people to a Medicare-style program that is already headed toward bankruptcy.

Put aside HC for the moment. Everything we use or consume is rationed. They are rationed because there is not enough wealth to pay for everybody to have everything. But they are rationed by the free market pricing mechanism, not by government.

No one is entitled to a 10,000 sq.ft. luxury home, though some people have one. We are not entitled, at someone else’s expense, to weekly steak dinners at Morton’s or a week-long ski vacation at a Beaver Creek lodge. So why are we entitled to an $80,000 knee replacement (that’s one knee) at someone else’s expense?

(A doctor friend who recently had both knees replaced told me that the artificial knee joints themselves cost $48,000 each. That’s before the surgeon’s and anesthesiologist’s fees and hospital charges, etc. It’s the same for hips and these are two of the three most common in-patient surgeries.)

But, some say, HC is different. It’s a fundamental right. Nonsense! Food and shelter are more essential, but only the most ardent Marxist would contend that the government should nationalize the food and housing industries.

As a realist I accept the fact that all material things are rationed. But I trust the free market to do a better job than government bureaucrats. Less realistically, I hope that the current revolt will result in getting the government entirely out of the HC field. Fat chance.