More Rational Thought

A solid op-ed from the Anchorage (AK) Daily News on HCR:

In the health care debate, there's a lot of misinformed talk about how government will "ration" health care. To hold down costs, the argument goes, the government will deny you drugs or medical procedures you need -- maybe even let you die.

Well, unless you're Warren Buffet, Bill Gates or someone else with a bottomless checkbook, your health care is already rationed.

If your health care is a benefit of your job, your company has already had to decide what level of coverage it can afford to provide.

That's rationing.

(More after the jump...)

After your health insurance is in place, the insurance company limits what drugs and medical treatments you can get. Private policies routinely pay only for generic drugs instead of more expensive brand name versions. Health plans typically cap how many days they will cover in substance abuse treatment or in a psychiatric hospital. They routinely limit how much they will pay for your care in a year or in your lifetime. Many insurance plans don't pay for orthodontia. Some plans tell you which doctors you can use.

That's rationing.

Does your health insurance company require "pre-authorization" for certain procedures? That's so it can decide whether it will cover a given procedure in a particular case.

That's rationing.

Most policies won't cover experimental treatments -- even if that "experimental" treatment may be your last hope against a terminal illness. Some people might call that a death panel. It's definitely rationing.

Health insurance companies often refuse to cover the "pre-existing conditions" of new customers. They impose waiting periods before your coverage starts. Sometimes, after you develop an expensive medical problem, insurance companies find excuses to cancel your policy or "adjust" your premiums to levels you or your employer can't afford.

That's all rationing.

And the editorial board is spot on.  Your access to health care is already limited by your ability to pay, your insurance company's decision-making process and the limits put in place by your employer.  There's already an army of bureaucrats that decide your health care for you if you have insurance.  There's no free-market magic solution to the issue when insurance companies routinely deny care to people who pay their premiums every month, and that person then dies because they did not receive the treatments that could have saved their lives.  Insurance companies are in the business of profiting off the odds of you dying or not.  They are not friendly, free-market entities working tirelessly to save you from the nightmare of death panels.

If you have an insurance policy, you're already subject to them.  They can literally decide if you live or die, given the correct circumstances.  It's nothing personal, just business.

And it has been for decades upon decades.  It will continue to be that way unless something is done, now, here, at this juncture.