ABSTRACT
Few subjects seem to make Americans as uncomfortable as that of the possible need to limit health care for the elderly. Even the Europeans and Japanese, who already have in place most of the reforms being touted as a way to avoid serious future problems in the United States, have begun to quietly discuss the coming need for limits on health care for the elderly. The possibility that many find most tolerable would be to use some kind of individual benefit standard that is, some treatment outcome standard that would apply to everyone, regardless of age, and that could be used for reimbursement entitlement. The troubling truth about the possible need for limits directly clashes with the even more troubling implications of what it would mean to do something about setting them. The resistance against the idea of an age limit stems from some profound mistakes people are prone to make in thinking about the elderly.
