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rdean
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This goes all the way back to 2006 when there were far less freshly injured veterans flooding VA Hospitals. Aged vets are required to go to private industry because it's another way the GOP can redistribute the wealth to the top. They are paid to do that by their business masters. And the base agrees because of the propaganda.
Tom Bock, commander of the American Legion, has another idea: allow elderly vets not in the system who are drawing Medicare payments to spend those benefits at a VA facility instead of going to a private doctor, as is now required by Medicare. "It's a win-win-win situation," he argues. Medicare, which pays more than $6,500 per patient annually for care by private doctors, could save with the VA's less expensive care, which costs about $5,000 per patient. The vets would receive better service at the VA's facilities, which could treat millions more patients with Medicare's cash infusion.
But conservatives fear such an arrangement would be a Trojan horse, setting up an even larger national health-care program and taking more business from the private sector. Congress has no plans to enlarge the scope of veterans' health care--much less consider it a model for, say, a government-run system serving nonvets. But it's becoming more and more "ideologically inconvenient for some to have such a stellar health-delivery system being run by the government," says Margaret O'Kane, president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, which rates health plans for businesses and individuals. If VA health care continues to be the industry leader, it may become more difficult to argue that the market can do better.
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Remember, that article was 10 years ago and the conservatives were already full of anti government propaganda.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Article after article, VA health care is referred to as the best in the world. Why is that? There are lots of studies in case anyone wants to go look it up. I've linked to them before.
Well, it happened under Clinton. All the VA hospitals were hooked together with a computers/bar code system. Every patient's examination, disease, treatment and medication is entered into this system. Anyone with half a brain understands the significance of having such a data base at your disposal. You don't have to guess. You know what works.
So doctors have an enormous data system that private industry doesn't have. My feeling is private industry should be charged to be able to hook into the VA system. Private industry would only improve with government help. When dealing with large numbers of people, organized government is ALWAYS better. That is what they do. Republicans would never admit that. It goes against their orthodoxy.
Check this out:
And by a number of measures, this government-managed health-care program--socialized medicine on a small scale--is beating the marketplace. For the sixth year in a row, VA hospitals last year scored higher than private facilities on the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, based on patient surveys on the quality of care received. The VA scored 83 out of 100; private institutions, 71. Males 65 years and older receiving VA care had about a 40% lower risk of death than those enrolled in Medicare Advantage, whose care is provided through private health plans or HMOs, according to a study published in the April edition of Medical Care. Harvard University just gave the VA its Innovations in American Government Award for the agency's work in computerizing patient records.
Once again, if the VA is doing bad, it's not about the care, it's about being flooded with injured vets from the GOP's Iraq war. The vets aren't saying they want to go someplace else. They are saying they have to wait. Republicans want to change the narrative so they could give returning vets vouchers and say "Good fucking luck, you're on your own" and shut down the best medical facilities in the world to shovel money to the wealthy. It's stuff like that which makes me bring up the "T" word. Traitor. Imagine how well the country would do if Republicans weren't always trying to redistribute the wealth of the nation to the top 1%.
Anyway, this is the REAL state of the VA. We could upgrade the computer system. We could charge private industry for access to bring them up to the level of the VA. There are all kinds of things we could do. Unfortunately, they GOP's answer is always "tear it down". We are seeing that now.
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How VA Hospitals Became The Best - Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center - Houston, Texas
Economist's View: VA Hospitals vs. Private Sector Hospitals
Tom Bock, commander of the American Legion, has another idea: allow elderly vets not in the system who are drawing Medicare payments to spend those benefits at a VA facility instead of going to a private doctor, as is now required by Medicare. "It's a win-win-win situation," he argues. Medicare, which pays more than $6,500 per patient annually for care by private doctors, could save with the VA's less expensive care, which costs about $5,000 per patient. The vets would receive better service at the VA's facilities, which could treat millions more patients with Medicare's cash infusion.
But conservatives fear such an arrangement would be a Trojan horse, setting up an even larger national health-care program and taking more business from the private sector. Congress has no plans to enlarge the scope of veterans' health care--much less consider it a model for, say, a government-run system serving nonvets. But it's becoming more and more "ideologically inconvenient for some to have such a stellar health-delivery system being run by the government," says Margaret O'Kane, president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, which rates health plans for businesses and individuals. If VA health care continues to be the industry leader, it may become more difficult to argue that the market can do better.
.
Remember, that article was 10 years ago and the conservatives were already full of anti government propaganda.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Article after article, VA health care is referred to as the best in the world. Why is that? There are lots of studies in case anyone wants to go look it up. I've linked to them before.
Well, it happened under Clinton. All the VA hospitals were hooked together with a computers/bar code system. Every patient's examination, disease, treatment and medication is entered into this system. Anyone with half a brain understands the significance of having such a data base at your disposal. You don't have to guess. You know what works.
So doctors have an enormous data system that private industry doesn't have. My feeling is private industry should be charged to be able to hook into the VA system. Private industry would only improve with government help. When dealing with large numbers of people, organized government is ALWAYS better. That is what they do. Republicans would never admit that. It goes against their orthodoxy.
Check this out:
And by a number of measures, this government-managed health-care program--socialized medicine on a small scale--is beating the marketplace. For the sixth year in a row, VA hospitals last year scored higher than private facilities on the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, based on patient surveys on the quality of care received. The VA scored 83 out of 100; private institutions, 71. Males 65 years and older receiving VA care had about a 40% lower risk of death than those enrolled in Medicare Advantage, whose care is provided through private health plans or HMOs, according to a study published in the April edition of Medical Care. Harvard University just gave the VA its Innovations in American Government Award for the agency's work in computerizing patient records.
Once again, if the VA is doing bad, it's not about the care, it's about being flooded with injured vets from the GOP's Iraq war. The vets aren't saying they want to go someplace else. They are saying they have to wait. Republicans want to change the narrative so they could give returning vets vouchers and say "Good fucking luck, you're on your own" and shut down the best medical facilities in the world to shovel money to the wealthy. It's stuff like that which makes me bring up the "T" word. Traitor. Imagine how well the country would do if Republicans weren't always trying to redistribute the wealth of the nation to the top 1%.
Anyway, this is the REAL state of the VA. We could upgrade the computer system. We could charge private industry for access to bring them up to the level of the VA. There are all kinds of things we could do. Unfortunately, they GOP's answer is always "tear it down". We are seeing that now.
.
How VA Hospitals Became The Best - Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center - Houston, Texas
Economist's View: VA Hospitals vs. Private Sector Hospitals
