He notes that the stealth rationing occurs due to government policy and "crony capitalism" (i.e., insurance companies acting as proxies for the government).
The quote by Dr. Kevin Pezzi on the problems of the government-run VA hospital system is especially worth reading. Here's an excerpt:
Anyone who values their life, or the lives of loved ones, should fear any healthcare system controlled by the government because the government excels at creating massive bureaucracies, such as those in VA hospitals, in which employees who are not doctors can overrule physician orders. No President or Congressman would have the guts to personally tell a doctor what he can and cannot do, but the need of politicians to control us is so strong that they create cold and uncaring bureaucracies to do the dirty work for them.
Who is on the short end of the stick when politicians ration care? Patients, who pay for that rationing with more suffering and an increased risk of death. President Obama tried to dismiss the notion of government "death panels" by claiming that he would create no such bureaucracy. He doesn't need to do that to achieve his objectives because every government bureaucracy in which doctors can be overruled by people who don't know what they are doing is functionally a death panel even though it is never labeled as such.
