Rationing Health Care (Scroll Down)

Your letter writer, Dr. Mark Solomon, is correct in saying that the other countries with single payer health care systems ration care (Letter on "An Ailing Health System: Feel Better!" New York Times, November 13, 2007: A28).

What he fails to recognize is that the United States also imposes rationing. Rationing is by price. If you can afford it, or have good insurance, the United States health care is the best in the world. If you cannot afford it, then you have no health care at all. The appalling health statistics for the United States are a consequence of this lack of coverage.

So the rationing argument is a red herring and should not get in the way of our designing a more inclusive system.

Sent to the New York Times