Rationing and the long-term-care system

Rationing is a concept newly introduced in health-systems analysis in the United States. Although rationing, when applied to health care, is a fearful word to the elderly, at the most basic level it is simply a method that enables government to intervene in the private marketplace to allocate resources to achieve particular policy ends. This intervention to affect allocation of health care resources has long been used by all levels of government in the United States. Intervention by government in the private marketplace is examined as a means of expanding or limiting the supply of health care services or expanding or limiting the demand for such services. The Oregon rationing experiment with Medicaid services has significantly contributed to the introduction of the concept of rationing of health care. As expected, there is a disproportionate interest by the elderly in rationing health care; thus the effect of the Oregon rationing experiment on the elderly is discussed, as are other allocation interventions on long-term care, as a service of particular interest to the elderly.