Single Payer Eliminates Rationing Based on Ability to Pay

All health care systems limit care based on the
availability of funds to pay for that care. Since the United States already
pays far more per capita than any other nation for health care, we should have
the least amount of rationing. But we don’t. We have the most rationing of all
industrialized nations merely because of our unique method of financing health
care. We ration based on the ability to pay. Other nations establish systems
that essentially eliminate financial barriers to care. No country turns away
individuals with a medical crisis that is an imminent life-threatening
emergency, but we are the only nation that turns away individuals with
significant, non-emergent medical disorders that impair quality of life and may
even hasten death.

Opponents of reform frequently cite the queues (waiting
periods) for specialized services that plague some other nations as a reason
that we should reject a national health program. It is important to recognize
that not all nations have significant queues. Often excessive queues can be
eliminated by simple queue management techniques – a process of identifying the
cause of the delays and instituting corrections. Sometimes an adjustment in
capacity is required. The cost of these adjustments is quite small when
compared to the overall costs of the health care system. With the amount that
we are already spending on health care, we have more than enough funds for the
stewards of our health care system to monitor flow and apply queue management
or capacity adjustment as required.