What Rationing Looks Like

In Britain, NICE -- the rationing arm of the National Health Service -- has just banned three of four life-saving treatments for patients with kidney cancer.

Not because they're dangerous. Not because they don't work. But because it's too expensive not just to have a "one size fits all" approach to treatment. In fact, NICE had originally banned all four life-saving treatments until reversing itself in the wake of a public outcry.

President Obama is going to try to remake the health care system. He wants health care to be universal. He wants health care to be cheap.

And there is no way to achieve both goals without rationing. Or else repealing the law of supply and demand.