Why We Must Ration Health Care

NYT ^ | 7/16/09 | PETER SINGER

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

It's surprising to see this article in the NYT — where you'd expect nothing but cheer-leading for government health care.

Actually, the first form of rationing you'll see is wait lists (and other forms of bureaucratic foot-dragging).

[BenLurkin]

Evil.

Just plain evil.

[Radl]

My wife is fighting Leukemia. I wonder if Obama and his crew will terminate her. Who would have imagine this crap happening in the U.S.A.

[coconutt2000]

Last I checked we didn’t have a “health care shortage” in our country.

But if the Dems have their way, we’ll have a shortage and rationing will become the norm.

Of course right now people and employers ration their spending to include healthcare, and for those who choose to abuse the Emergency Services system in the U.S., one can just go to an Emergency Room and receive care and many just ignore the bill that follows afterward.

[secret garden]

We should start the rationing process with Pete and his family.

[Carley]

Princeton

Home of Sean Willentz the so called historian who believed lying to a federal judge was not an impeachable offense

Home of Omarosa Obama

Home of Sonia Sotomayor

What an illustrious group of alumni.

Ugh

[sourcery]

Health care in this country has always been rationed—by price and affordability. That's the only fair way to do it, so that each individual gets his "medical rationing coupons" (dollar bills) the "old fashioned way," by earning them.

What the author is proposing isn't a change to a system where health care is rationed, it's a change to a system where health care is rationed based on political considerations. That's what socialism is all about: allocation of resources based on politics, and not based on economics, personal merit or individual liberty.

[Waco]

Thet want to nationalize health care, and the 1st thing outa their mouth is rationing it. No thanks gerbil-head.

[combat_boots]

You & the feds 1st, Pete.

[hoosierham]

I don’t want to pay the mortgage on your house And you don’t want to pay for my health care

Exactly

[silverleaf]

http://standinthetrenches.blogspot.com/2005/10/peter-singer-on-ethics-of-eyebrow.html

article about Pete Singer, the “ethicist” from Princeton

[silverleaf]

http://standinthetrenches.blogspot.com/2005/10/peter-singer-on-ethics-of-eyebrow.html

article about Pete Singer, the “ethicist” from Princeton

[silverleaf]

http://standinthetrenches.blogspot.com/2005/10/peter-singer-on-ethics-of-eyebrow.html

article about Pete Singer, the “ethicist” from Princeton

[FlyVet]

None of these elitist advocates are going to subject themselves to the system they advocate. That's for the little people, not them.

The CongressCriminals (TM) have already exempted themselves.

[DonaldC]

“I don’t want to pay the mortgage on your house And you don’t want to pay for my health care”

A mortgage is a choice. When health care issues arise, it is not always a choice or preventable. The feds simply need to be out of this business. I think much could be done to restructure payment on a local level, but doing something nationally is just nuts.

[KarlInOhio]

Everything that is in a limited quantity is rationed in some way. If everyone wants surf and turf every day what happens? The price of steak and lobsters go up. However, if you start having government outlawing surf and turf for everyone because it is too expensive for some, then people stop building fishing boats and new farms which could have brought the price down. Instead they even let the current farms go fallow and let the boats rot in the docks. Similarly if the government declares that Sutent is too expensive and should be illegal, then the manufacturer stops looking for cheaper ways to produce it and stops working on the next generation of drugs that might extent life by five years rather than just six months. Pretty soon you get back to the old days of medicine where the doctor tells you to take two aspirin and call the coroner when needed.

I don't want to die when a bureaucrat quotes a government regulation that tells me it is time to die.

[Old Seadog]

Peter Singer and unnamed friend

[DallasDeb]

Peter Singer, if it’s the same man, came to the US to be a full-tenured professor at one of the ivy league schools (Princeton, I think). From Australia. He is a proponent of animal rights. He is also a proponent of killing a child up to a year old.

[lolhelp]

Which one is Singer?

[spectre]

It's not just life extension treatments they want to ration. It's the quality of life treatments they'll go after.

For example. For Arthritis suffers, a drug called Remicade is available. It's average cost is about $1,400 per infusion and the effects generally last only 6 to 8 weeks. So it's quite expensive, but living pain free is life altering.

My friend lives in fear Medicare will eliminate her treatments.

sw