Archive for June, 2007

Economists on the Inevitability of Rationing

Monday, June 25th, 2007

DrRich has patiently explained, here and here, among other places, why rationing healthcare is not optional. We must do it, and we’re doing it right now.
But DrRich has been criticized in making such arguments on the grounds that he is not an economist. He has countered these criticisms by pointing out that the inevitability of […]

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Why Gag Clauses are Obsolete

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

After the collapse of the Clintons‘ plan to federalize healthcare in 1994, the Gekkonian HMOs experienced explosive growth. For the remainder of the 1990s, American doctors had little choice, if they hoped to retain access to American patients, but to sign contracts with one or more of these HMOs. The large majority of these contracts […]

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You Mean, Cost Doesn’t Equate to Quality?

Friday, June 15th, 2007

The New York Times reported yesterday on a survey of the 60 hospitals in Pennsylvania that perform cardiac bypass surgery, and noted that hospitals that were paid up to $100,000 per operation had results that were no better (and in some cases worse) than hospitals that were paid only $20,000 per operation. The newsworthiness? The […]

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The Two Flavors of Covert Rationing

Sunday, June 10th, 2007

As we learned in the previous post, the behaviors used to covertly ration healthcare in America are advanced by two different schools of thought. Once we are introduced to these two schools and become familiar with their philosophies, it will be easy for us to begin spotting covert rationing behavior when we encounter it, and […]

Posted in An Introduction to Covert Rationing, Gekkonian Rationing, Wonkonian Rationing | 1 Comment »

Is Covert Rationing a Vast Conspiracy?

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007

On the surface it might seem impossible to conduct widespread rationing in a huge industry like healthcare, which consumes nearly 15% of the GDP and directly affects the lives of most of us at one time or another, and to do it covertly, in secret. Wouldn’t the rationing of such a highly visible commodity be […]

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