Rationing Health Care

It's really interesting to read neo-con par excellence Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post without his typical venom and high dudgeon. I've read several of his columns now on Obama's social policies which speak fairly objectively and non-critically of Obama's options. It leads me to think that Krauthammer has a bit of soft spot for democratic socialist (read European) social policy. The latest example is today's column and his discussion of the coming rationing of universal health care:

The more acute thinkers on the left can see rationing coming, provoking Slate blogger Mickey Kaus to warn of the political danger. "Isn't it an epic mistake to try
to sell Democratic health care reform on this basis? Possible sales pitch: 'Our
plan will deny you unnecessary treatments!' . . . Is that really why the middle
class will sign on to a revolutionary multitrillion-dollar shift in spending --
so the government can decide their life or health 'is not worth the
price'?"

My own preference is for a highly competitive, privatized health
insurance system with a government-subsidized transition to portability,
breaking the absurd and ruinous link between health insurance and employment.
But if you believe that health care is a public good to be guaranteed by the
state, then a single-payer system is the next best alternative. Unfortunately,
it is fiscally unsustainable without rationing.