This is a really interesting article. The author(1) looks at the reasoning behind healthcare rationing and suggests that it isn't as bad as it appears. Essenti

This is a really interesting article. The author(1) looks at the reasoning behind healthcare rationing and suggests that it isn't as bad as it appears. Essentially he suggests that it's easy to find media-friendly stories of how rationing healthcare screws some hardworking soul, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good idea. He look at how we already put a cost on life by limiting the budgets for things like consumer product safety standards, and the amount spent by transport agencies on safety. He argues there is an objective measure that economists have been using for years (quality-adjusted life-year, or QALY) to assess the cost-effectiveness of treatment and that the US government could use this for effective healthcare reform. He goes on to point out that while it's easy to point out the places in universal health-care systems where people are excluded from treatment because the system tells them it isn't available, it's much hard to find when people self-deny treatment for fiscal reasons. He cites the case of a woman in the U.S. without health insurance who didn't take her blood pressure medication because she bought food for her family. As a results she died in the ER with a brain hemorrhage. He also compares the system in the U.S. to those of the UK, Canada and Australia, and suggests that health-care reform in the U.S. would not have to be modeled on those systems but could even be modernized to a system that suited the American temperament better. The Australian system, for example, provides universal healthcare, but also allows citizens to buy into private healthcare schemes which do not restrict treatments. This is just a poor summary and an extremely interesting article. (1) Peter Singer is professor of bioethics at Princeton University. He is also laureate professor at the University of Melbourne, in Australia. His most recent book is “The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.”