Scarcity is increasingly common in health care, yet many physicians may be reluctant to acknowledge the ways that limited health care resources influence their decisions. Reasons for this denial include that physicians are unaccustomed to thinking in terms of scarcity, uncomfortable with the role that limited resources play in poor outcomes, and hesitant to acknowledge the influence of financial incentives and restrictions on their practice. However, the denial of scarcity serves as a barrier to containing costs, alleviating avoidable scarcity, limiting the financial burden of health care on patients, and developing fair allocation systems.In this report, we speculate about why some physicians are unwilling to acknowledge the presence of scarcity or the influence that it has on their practice. We then discuss the potential consequences of this denial on patients and the health care system. To set the stage for this discussion, we begin with 3 examples that illustrate physicians' denial of scarcity.

Related Topics: Cost effectiveness, Rationing decisions

Keywords: health care rationing economics, humans, resource allocation economics, United States, waiting lists

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