Peter Singer's Definition Of Rationing In The US

To best serve the people of the United States of America, health care must be rationed. Additionally, the United States health care system currently includes rationing, so not only should rationing continue, but the rationing process should also be made more transparent and openly discussed to make ensure that it is maximally beneficial for the U. S. people. The word “rationing” probably makes you think of war time or something that one must do as a last resort. However, when I use the word “rationing” in this essay, I am utilizing the moral philosopher, Peter Singer’s definition of rationing: “rationing health care means getting value for the billions we are spending by setting limits on which treatments should be paid for from the public

S. government - specifically for the health care system. Kip Sullivan asserts, “by my calculations, the U.S. health care system may be wasting up to $300 to $400 billion dollars a year” (Sullivan, 2005). In other words, we should not have to ration health care because we can reallocate resources from areas of spending that are unnecessary to areas with more need, and limit the amount of wasteful spending occurring (Sullivan, 2005). I agree that careless and unproductive spending should be cut down, and the money directed towards helping more people gain access to the health care they need. However, Sullivan’s argument demonstrates what rationing entails: reducing the amount of money spent on ineffective treatments so that the money can be spent on obtaining more quality care for larger amounts of people in the United States (Singer,

The neurologist, Pedro Weisleder recommends utilizing a clinical effectiveness model because “realistically, we are unlikely to find a model that unconditionally pleases the socially conservative, the fiscal hawk, the tax liberal, and the socialist” (Weisleder, 2015). It is difficult – if not impossible – to please everybody and everybody’s opinions on how health care should be distributed realistically; if it were easy and there was an obvious solution, then there would be no more arguments on this topic. Clinically effective care is defined by Weisleder as practicing medicine based more on explicit evidence to improve the “success, efficiency, and value of health care delivery” (Weisleder, 2015). The goal is to use more evidence, including opinions of experts and patients’ experiences, to guide decisions made about patients and health care (Weisleder, 2015). If we have to make difficult decisions that are going to affect a lot of people in large ways – like dealing with someone’s health – then we should try to make the most informed decisions that we can to hopefully make the best decisions. Furthermore, while reporting on the current wasteful spending of the U. S. health care system, the Institute of Medicine recommends “ensuring doctors work in teams and share information; making prices and costs transparent to consumers; rewarding doctors for outcomes, not procedures;