GOVERNMENT HEALTH PLANS ALWAYS RATION CARE

President Obama objects when people use the word "rationing" in regards to government-run health care. But rationing is inevitable if we simply expand government control without fixing the way health care is reimbursed so that doctors and patients become sensitive to issues of price and quality, says Dr. Gottlieb, a physician and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

In countries such as France and Germany, layers of bureaucracy like health boards have been specifically engineered to delay the adoption of new medical products and services, thus lowering spending.

In France:

• Reimbursement rates are set by the National Union of Sickness Insurance Funds, a group that also negotiates pay to doctors.

In Germany:

• The Federal Joint Committee regulates reimbursement and restrictions on prescribing.
• The Social Insurance Organization is in charge of setting prices and sets their practice budgets.
• In the past 12 months, the 15 medical products and services that cleared this process spent an average 35 months under 'review'.

In short, other countries where government plays a large role in health care aren't shy about rationing. Obama's budget director, Peter Orszag, acknowledged that rationing reduces costs when he told Congress last year that

"spending can be moderated if diffusion of existing costly services are slowed."

READ MORE