Should Americans be allowed to spend their own money to save their own lives? Rationing in the Senate and House health care bills

Both of these represent ways of imposing premium price controls.  How do price controls force rationing?  To take an extreme example, suppose the government, upset by rising food prices, imposed the rule that no restaurant could charge more than $5 a meal.  Consumers might be delighted – until they realized that, since restauranteurs can only afford to offer very meager meals for such prices, most of the restaurants, other than fast food suppliers, had to close.  In a similar manner, tight government limits on what people are allowed to pay for health insurance will lead to cutting back on the lifesaving treatments they are able to obtain – rationing.

Burke Balch, J.D., directs the National Right to Life Committee’s Powell Center for Medical Ethics.  Documentation and further details are available at www.nrlc.org/HealthCareRationing/Index.htm