How many millions of Americans can’t go for preventative care because it is cost prohibitive? How many people have died because an insurance company denied coverage – even retroactively? How many people have lost their homes, jobs and everything they own because of the controlled distribution of healthcare by those who should not be making healthcare and medical decisions?
With the added stress on the economy today with the hundreds of thousands of job losses each month, is the lose your job, lose your healthcare coverage not de facto rationing? When Americans are referred to as healthcare consumers who should make "informed decisions when purchasing healthcare", as opposed to having a basic right to basic preventative care and coverage for common ailments as well as for catastrophic accidents or injuries – how is that not dictating what gets covered and what does not?
When the emergency room is the only available resource to millions of families - especially for things that could either have been avoided through basic preventative care or a simple visit to a physician, how is that not leaving very little choice for these families? When a choice has to be made between medication and food or heat or clothing because insurance and drug companies (who get billions in subsidies) make their products too costly – how is that not rationing healthcare?
It is absolutely insane for anyone to make the argument that expanding coverage (even if it is basic coverage and only "a few million families") to more people so that they can take extra precautions or catch potential diseases earlier or free up emergency rooms for those who really need it will result in "rationing healthcare".
Rationing healthcare by people who have no business making these decisions is already being done on a wide scale. It’s even being called "managed care" and has been taking the healthcare decisions out of the hands of doctors and patients for years now.
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