It's the setting of the terms of the policies that involve rationing.
These are decided and consented to in advance. At least theoretically. I realize laws and regulations may limit choices. Also the decisions may be made by a corporate buyer but that buyer is acting for the benefit of the employees as well as the employer. Before you say such a buyer is acting only for the corporation, remember the corporation is buying the insurance as part of its compensation for employees.
The experience of countries like Britain or Canada are evidence.
There aren't private insurers there to compare against so there are no data we can use. Perhaps you are comparing Britain's government vs American private insurance but that's apples and oranges.
There don't need to be private insurers there. I think its reasonable to compare Britain's government (as a proxy for what governments will do anywhere including here) vs American private insurance.
Do you seriously think an American NHS would be more like American private insurance rather than more like the British NHS? I think we can expect an American NHS to be like the British NHS - the advocates of socialized health care here continually hold up the NHS and other countries systems as examples we should emulate.
And as for the idea, we're not talking about an American NHS, ultimately we are. The advocates of the public option have said time and again they expect the public option to get us to a completely socialized system in time.
So you think American health care can't be eroded because the people just won't put up with it?
I don't think that an American government provider catering to the same clientele as a private insurer, the public plan, for example, could ration appreciably more, no. If it did, then people would opt for the private plans and, were the difference too great, public opinion would force the public plan into conformity.
You assume there will continue to be private plans. In time there won't. And thats intended.
Do you think the cultural differences between the US and Canada will insure we can't develop the same waiting periods here?
Again, Canada has no private insurance plan with which to compare, only the government one. If private alternatives were legal in Canada, then the two would end up more or less the same.
Comparing Canada against the US is another topic.
Same comments as re. the NHS.
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