Health Care and Distributive Justice

摘要

Health care has reached a level of crisis in the United States. Costs areskyrocketing while thirty-five million individuals are uninsured. Certain characteristics and economic aspects unique to American health care contributed to the overall problem. Efforts to gain control of the crisis will center around two main issues: access and cost containment. Ethical principles, particularly distributive justice, or the allocation of scarce resources, must be considered. Discussions of rationing occur with increasing frequency in political, social and professional circles. Ultimately, we must be prepared to address whether or not we can increase health care access and control cost without implementing some form of rationing.