Would SB 840 cause rationed health care?
Under the current system, health care is rationed by one’s ability to pay. The questions should be, “What is the basis for health care rationing?” and “Who makes these decisions?” Currently, HMOs and insurance and pharmaceutical companies ration care and medications by excluding those who cannot afford to pay for them. Insurance companies decide what is covered and what is not. They deny care to the uninsured, the underinsured and to many insured because of preexisting conditions. Health care is rationed to secure profits. About 50 percent of the money spent on health care is wasted under the current system.[18] SB 840 provides for a publicly financed health care system that reorganizes the allocation of health care dollars, implements improvements in care quality, uses purchasing power to negotiate for lower prices, and increases primary and preventive care to minimize the need for expensive emergency and hospital care. Patients and their doctors–not insurance companies–make the fin
