Can We Say No?: The Challenge of Rationing Health Care

Health care reform is back on the national agenda, with President Bush using the State of the Union address to call for expanding health savings accounts, limiting medical malpractice claims and medical errors, and helping workers switch jobs without losing their current health plans. But with health-care costs as a share on national income triple what they were in 1950; the focus seems to be more on restraining costs than increasing access.

On Feb. 7, Brookings will hold the third in a series of ongoing discussions designed to deepen its health policy research and find practical approaches to health-care policy issues. At this Brookings briefing, Senior Fellow Henry Aaron, author of Can We Say No? The Challenge of Rationing Health Care (Brookings, 2005), will join other health-care experts in discussing current trends. The panel will look particularly at the pros and cons of rationing health care, looking especially at lessons learned from the British experience. Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute, will moderate the discussion.

After remarks, there will be a question and answer session.