AS PART of his health-care plan, President Clinton has proposed price controls on insurance premiums and “global budgets” to limit how much people can spend on health care each year. The concept is not new. Most other developed countries limit how much doctors and hospitals have to spend, thereby indirectly forcing them to ration health care. For example, Britain, New Zealand, and Canada—English-speaking countries with cultures similar to our own—all impose global budgets, and all have long waiting lists for hospital surgery. In Britain (pop. 57 million), the number of people waiting for surgery is more than 1 million; in New Zealand (pop. 3 million), more than 50,000; and in Canada (pop. 25 million), about 177,000.
On the surface, the number of people waiting seems relatively small— ranging from less than 2 per cent of the total population in Britain to less than 1 per cent in Canada. However, considering that only 16 per cent of people enter a hospital each year in developed countries and that only about 4 per cent require the most serious (and expensive) procedures, these numbers are quite high. In New Zealand, for example, there is one person waiting for every three surgeries performed each year.
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