The Uninsured and the Rationing of Health Care

This article argues that, when seen in international perspective, the root cause of lack of access to health care in the US appears to be lack of trust in government. Recent developments in the private health insurance sector, however, raise the specter of explicit rationing of health care and, inevitably, summon government intervention in the form of structured public discussion of this difficult issue. Governments in a number of countries have embarked on such national debates, and the experience is reported. Government led public debate of rationing of health care in the private sector may offer a window of opportunity for enacting some form of universal health insurance coverage.