Rationing health care - Essay Example

This essay argues that health care rationing constitutes an effective policy decision as it One of the most prominent reasons to support the rationing of health care emerges in terms of economic and financial concerns. When examining health care rationing in this context of investigation some of the immediate objections occur in terms of ethics. To many it seems inhumane that the government or an insurance agency would be able to make the decision that someone’s end of life health care was not worth the costs.

Still, on further examination, it’s clear that rationing health care is not only an economic necessity, but also can be justified along ethical grounds. Philosopher Peter Singer has levied one of the prominent arguments from this perspective. Singer states, Rationing health care means getting value for the billions we are spending by setting limits on which treatments should be paid for from the public purse. If we ration we won’t be writing blank checks to pharmaceutical companies for their patented drugs, nor paying for whatever procedures doctors choose to recommend (Singer).

In these regards, Singer is indicating that in continuing to distribute health care without ration the United States is being extremely wasteful. While to some it may appear unethical to restrict certain health care coverage, in reality this is an extremist approach and a more rationalistic approach to human health must be adopted for the financial well being of the nation. Another prominent reason that it’s necessary to ration health care is because doing so would create an environment where more people could gain health care access.

While the notion of rationing health care to ensure more people receive health sounds paradoxical it’s clear there are strong reasons this is a practical result. The main understanding in these regards is that the current health care system is hindered by exorbitant costs. One must think of a person’s health care as functioning within the structure of a community. When one individual receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in health care, this necessitates that health care agencies raise costs.

The higher costs of health care coverage make it so less people can afford the fees. These concerns have extended into the business realm. David Leonardt (2009) notes, “The rapid rise in medical costs has put many employers in a tough spot. They have had to pay much higher insurance premiums, which have increased their labor costs.” The obvious implication of such rising health care costs are that employers will have to increasingly offer health care coverage. Through rationing health care more people would receive health care access both through personal and professional coverage.

In addition to the concerns listed above, it’s also clear that health care should be rationed, as doing so would encourage an environment of discipline and efficiency. Prominent researchers have noted that the current health care system functions through tremendous waste and exorbitant costs ("A conversation," 2010). To a large degree such inefficiency has been attributable to a system where health care is readily distributed with no regards to cost or primacy of need. While rationing health care would not simply solve the inefficient health care system, it would create an environment where both health care recipients and providers would be required to implement greater discipline and