Talk:Health care rationing

What is this article for? I read all the references which made it clear that health care can be rationed by the simple operation of market forces without any government intervention, and as this was in conflict with the introduction which said something about "how government rations health care" I deleted the reference to government. I see three possible options

1 Is it another place to hang American scare stories about health care restrictions stemming from health care reform? About half the article is in the context of American health care reform- If so the matter is well covered in the American specific article and deserves no mention here.

2 Is it about how governments around the world intervene to affect the allocation of resources that would otherwise happen in a free market? I suspect that this is what Jesanj meant it to be but there are three problems with this.

(i) The title of the article does not convey this

(ii) When I tried to add in a way in which government intervention increases access to health care in the case of dialysis or by the relative absense of access costs in the UK Jesanj deleted it! From what I know about "Obamacare" it is about increasing access to health care and not restricting it. Unless he knows otherwise.

3. Is it about how governments allocate their own budget to individual health care services? This is a legitimate topic but again

(i) the title of the article does not convey this

(ii) the PRI article cited is about this subject and confusingly calls it "rationing". But it only covers 4 countries and in three of these countries only case studies are mentioned and not general principles, so it is hardly a worthy reference for such a topic. It is also very confusing given that it refers to true rationing at one point (the absolute allocation of goods by coupons in war time - i.e. an allowance that cannot be exceeded) and the insurance coverage rules of the UK National Health Service. The latter is not health care rationing in the sense mentioned previously because the UK has a free market in health care with private health care providers and private insurance alongside a dominant government player. The UK government does NOT ration health care but there is price rationing there just as there is in most countries, including the United States. Everyone in the UK knows the NHS coverage rules and everyone is free to determine if they want to spend more (insurance or out of pocket) to extend NHS coverage for themselves or their family into the private health care sector. This is, therefore. not "rationing" in the war-time coupon sense or any kind that most people would call "rationing". The setting of coverage rules (a common feature of almost every insurance policy of any type), as Uwe Reinhardt points out in the other referenced article, is not generally regarded as "rationing". Which means that the very use of this citation seems to indicate that it has been used as a scare tactic in American political debate!!