Abstract
The article examines two primary policy proposals for how the U.S. should allocate its limited health care dollars: a centralized model in which a commission establishes rationing guidelines, and a decentralized model in which rationing decisions are made by health care providers on a case by case basis. The author finds significant advantages with each position, leading the author to assert that a combination of each is key to an effective rationing policy: a centralized control of structure coupled with decentralized physician-level decision making. While mindful that formal rationing guidelines alone are unfeasible to effectuate cost-effective care, the author introduces two decentralized policies to control costs: the limitation of resources at physicians' disposal and elimination of physicians' personal incentive to provide high-cost care.
First Page
449
Recommended Citation
David
Orentlicher
Rationing Health Care: It's a Matter of the Health Care System's Structure,
19
Annals Health L.
449
(2010).
Available at: https://lawecommons.luc.edu/annals/vol19/iss3/3