People opposed to health care reform argue that government-run health care will include health care rationing. That “death panels” will decide whether Grandma can live or not. Or whether a boy with down’s syndrome can get needed care.

The truth is, we have care rationing going on right now, today. Health care companies, under pressure to please stockholders, must reduce the amount claims they approve. It’s called a “medical loss ratio” and health care companies are pressured to lower this ‘loss’ quarter after quarter. Think of it this way: If you pay $200 per month in health care premiums, in 1995 $190 of that premium would have gone toward your medical costs. That’s a good ratio for you, but not so good for the health care company. Today that same $200 premium would amount to only $162 of your health care. How do they improve their medical loss ratio? Wendell Potter, former executive at Cigna in an interview with Bill Moyers said that they do this by dumping members (patients) who have costly illnesses and by denying claims. Less and less of the money you spend on your health care premiums will go toward actual health care. It will, instead go to pad the pocket of executives at for-profit health care companies. If health care companies denying claims to increase their profits is not rationing, I don’t know what is.

But what are some other ways that health care is rationed? Basically, health care is available to the very poor (through Medicaid), to those over 65 (through Medicaire) and to those who can afford to pay the ever-increasing cost of monthly premiums. People who work for companies (that get tax breaks to pay for employee health insurance premiums) may have a little easier time paying for health care, but not always. If you work for a small company and someone in that company gets sick and begins to use too much of the health care they’ve been paying for, more than likely that company will be ‘purged’ from that plan. Lesson learned? Even if you are in the “lucky” group of people who have health insurance, just be careful not to get too sick and actually need to use the health care for which you’ve been paying.

Our health care is also rationed based on who can afford to pay. There are roughly 46 million Americans today (more than the entire population of Canada) who do not have health insurance. A Harvard Medical Study showed that as a result of no access to health care 45,000 of  Americans die each year. People without health insurance have a 40 percent higher risk of death. How is that not rationing?