Among the most pernicious and blatantly false Republican talking points designed to obstruct health care reform is the fear-mongering claim that Democratic proposals will lead to "rationing." Of course, with almost 50 million uninsured and another 25 million underinsured, Mitch McConnell's dystopian future of a system which "denies, delays, or rations health care" is already today's nightmare for millions of Americans. But as it turns out, recent studies show that the market failure that is the crumbling U.S. health care system is producing a another, often hidden crisis: self-rationing.

As McClatchy reported last week, a new Consumers Union survey revealed that due to skyrocketing costs and reductions in coverage, Americans are forced to deny themselves needed medical treatment. Among the findings of CU's poll of a 1,002 respondents:

In the new poll 59 percent said that the cost of their health care had increased more than their other expenses over the past two years. Fifty-one percent said they had faced difficult health care choices in the past year. The most common responses were putting off a doctor visit because of cost (28 percent), not being unable to afford medical bills or medication (25 percent), and putting off a medical procedure because of cost (22 percent).

Twenty-eight percent said they had lost or experienced cutbacks in their health care coverage in the past year. The greatest concerns about health care expressed by respondents were a major financial loss or setback from medical cost due to an illness or accident (73 percent), not being able to afford health care in the future (73 percent), necessary care being denied or rationed by health insurance companies (73 percent), and the prospect of rising costs forcing them to choose between health care and other necessities (64 percent).

Those dismal results echoed the shocking revelations from an April 2009 Thomson Reuters survey.

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As I discussed last week, members of Congress not only have great health insurance, they also have access to the superb on-site Office of the Attending Physician for themselves and their family for a mere pittance. So of course they don't understand!

I think Nick Kristof makes a fine suggestion here and we should ask Congress to do it to show they're working in good faith:

Let me offer a modest proposal: If Congress fails to pass comprehensive health reform this year, its members should surrender health insurance in proportion with the American population that is uninsured.

It may be that the lulling effect of having very fine health insurance leaves members of Congress insensitive to the dysfunction of our existing insurance system. So what better way to attune our leaders to the needs of their constituents than to put them in the same position?

About 15 percent of Americans have no health insurance, according to the Census Bureau. Another 8 percent are underinsured, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy research group. So I propose that if health reform fails this year, 15 percent of members of Congress, along with their families, randomly lose all health insurance and another 8 percent receive inadequate coverage.

Congressional critics of President Obama’s efforts to achieve health reform worry that universal coverage will be expensive, while their priority is to curb social spending. So here’s their chance to save government dollars in keeping with their own priorities.

Those same critics sometimes argue that universal coverage needn’t be a top priority because anybody can get coverage at the emergency room. Let them try that with their kids.

Every time someone (okay, my oldest childhood friend who, despite years of my positive influence, only watches Fox News with her libertarian hubby) tells me how her insurance is fine and she doesn't want Obama's "socialist" healthcare reform, I respond, "You don't have health insurance. You have the illusion of health insurance, and for your sake, I hope you never find out." Oy.

(CBS) President Obama will be promoting health care reform this week in Virginia and North Carolina, and plans to keep the pressure on Congress during next month's recess. One argument for health care reform is that 47 million Americans are uninsured.

But not everyone knows that another 25 million are underinsured as CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports.

John Stewardson is up at dawn, working for the local 602 union in Washington, D.C. But by 11:30 a.m., he's home fixing lunch for his ailing wife Linda, a cancer survivor.

"I'm just going to have to take medicine for the rest of my life," she said.

Diagnosed with a brain tumor last summer, she's in remission. Now it's her family's financial health at stake. In March, their healthcare insurance capped-out at $150,000 of treatment, minimum coverage by industry standards.

The cost of treating cancer and its side effects demolished their life savings.

"It's like she fell out a cancer tree and hit every branch on the way down," John Stewardson said.

They owe more than $100,000 in medical bills.

Dr. Deepa Subramaniam is counseling more and more patients like Linda - forced to decide which treatments are worth the cost.

"I am trying to balance cost and effectiveness in her case," Subramaniam said. "You worry that somehow by choosing a treatment that is less expensive, that we are compromising the quality of the care."

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is leading the effort to push the affordable health choices act through the Senate. He supports a government insurance plan that eliminates lifetime and annual caps on all healthcare plans.

"The underinsured are a critical group," Dodd told Miller. "In some cases 53 percent don't know they're underinsured. So they either have a huge co-pay if the problem happens or the deductibles being so high they might as well not have insurance."