Health Care Rationing

Quality vs. Quantity: Health Care Rationing by Age

A fifty-five year old man with hemophilia (bleeding disease) was admitted to the hospital with a fractured hip. To prevent bleeding he was given a new and expensive drug used to treat hemophilia. On the second day after surgery the new drug was stopped and a less-expensive drug was given. He started to bleed over the next twenty-four hours and required six units of blood. The new drug was reinstated for the remainder of his hospitalization. The cost for the less-expensive drug was $10,400 per day. The cost for the new and expensive drug was $92,400 per day. By the end of his hospital stay, this patient consumed over $1.2 million in drug therapy to control his bleeding (Capozzi 1279).

The use of new medical technology often comes at a shockingly high price. As a result, rationing “understood as the distribution of scarce resources within the healthcare system” (Brauer 27) has become a highly debated topic in the healthcare world. The lack of resources and cost of various procedures forces rationing. Patients, physicians, and insurance companies must work together to identify a feasible medical plan for the patient. With the increase of life expectancy and the need for medical coverage, age must be used as a criterion for health care rationing, though not the only criterion.

Health care rationing is becoming a much larger concern for the general population. In the year 2000 The World Health Organization said, “The number of people aged 60 and over is growing faster than any other age group” (qtd. in Giordano 83). The “battle” for health care between the elderly and the young will increase as this elderly generation continues to rise. The treatment cost for United States citizens is also rising at an alarming rate. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, “expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.2 trillion in 2007, more than three times the $714 billion...