20 September 2018 - Rationing of some sort is part and parcel of every healthcare system. Simply put, it refers to any method to allocate scare resources. This may occur by implicit means. 

To illustrate, in the U.S. allocation of healthcare resources happens largely implicitly on the basis of willingness or ability to pay, whether with or without health insurance. In most other industrialised nations allocation of healthcare resources occurs explicitly independently of an individual’s willingness or ability to pay, for example, by way of government-imposed formulary restrictions or price controls. 

It appears that a private entity in the US, the pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark, is embarking on an explicit path towards rationing.

Read Forbes article