blems of rationing health care must be considered with regard to cost and equitability. If we correctly consider rationing to be a cost containment measure, as well as a more equitable means of dividing resources, cost containment will ultimately be the deciding factor in the United States economy; even so, costs have traditionally risen because legislators have not wanted to regulate the quantity of available medical care. Expenditures are a function of the price of services times the quantity of services delivered. Most policies enacted to date have focused on the price of services. Policymakers are understandably reluctant to consider restricting the quantity of services, fearful of interpretations that they are sacrificing quality of care at the altar of cost containment."
Given that quality of care has been synonymous with quantity of care in most taxpayers' minds, it will be difficult to convince them that quality does not necessarily depend on how much care they receive. Medical effectiveness evaluations, for example, may cut down on unnecessary exp
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