MAKING PEOPLE PAY FOR MEDICAL CARE IN A PANDEMIC IS FOOLISH—AND DEADLY

IN AREAS OF THE COUNTRY hardest hit by COVID-19, clinicians are already being forced to make tragic rationing decisions: about who to admit to the hospital, who to transfer to the ICU and who to place on scarce ventilators. These decisions feel out of character with our national identity. We normally think of ourselves as too wealthy, too committed to preserving American lives, to ration medical care.

However, rationing of American