care costs makes rationing virtually inevitable.
As costs continue to escalate out of control, nothing is more certain than an increasing number of patients will be forced to go without potentially life-extending or quality-of-life enhancing treatments (p. 1454).
If rationing is to be comprehensively evaluated for its utility as a state or federal health care policy, it is important to determine its advantages and disadvantages. Two of the greatest advantages of health care rationing have been discussed by Young (1994) who reports that, first, rationing is one of the only medical system options that allows for cutting down health care costs while maintaining health care quality.
Second, health care rationing, through its impact in terms of reducing costs, allows the state or other governmental agency to offer universal access to basic medical services. In other words, it assists the state in covering the costs of the basic medical problems of people either having no insurance or of their being under-insured.
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