Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
If you want to talk about expanding a safety net okay- don't fuck with a system that takes really good care of the majority of the country though.
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Is this where the idea that because 51 percent of the population voted for something a mandate has been set forth comes from? 44 million people in this country do not have health insurance. No system takes care of them, except thanks to EMTALA, they can go to the very expensive ERs and not be turned away by the hospitals. They'll have to mortgage their houses and businesses to pay for the care they receive, but what they hey, right?
Look, what I'm saying is that the bitch for years has always been that you get lower quality if you try any state-sponsored healthcare may be invalidaed by a (peer reviewed academic) study that says that the VA system meets or exceeds private insurance in every measure of quality out there. The VA system had previously been a joke for years (both of my grandfathers died in VA hospitals, I have personal as well as professional experience with them), but with healthcare information technology finally developing AND a system that can easily identify health problems on a macro level, the reputation of the VA has improved dramatically in the last ten years. This study validates a lot of what the rumor mill had been talking about with regard to the VA system over the last five years.
But it's hard to duplicate the system in the private sector. First, it's nationwide. With the exception of Kaiser Second, the people in the VA system are in it for life, so it's easier to identify and actually treat the problems that may come up, even decades later. Third, the system is closed, whereas in the private sector it's a bit more piecemeal. That cardiology group, with this hospital, with a third physical therapy contractor, and a separate nursing service. Different in-patient than out-patient care.
Anecdotally, which means absolutely nothing, most of the Canadians and Brits that I know love their respective healthcare systems. Friends and family whose insurance ran out here in the US weren't so enamoured.
What I'm suggesting is that it's time to take another look at the VA system, because managed care in the early 1990s only slowed the rising healthcare costs, and they're back up to pre-managed care rates of inflation. This is a situation that someone's going to have to address sooner or later, and the VA may be a good model for a healthcare system that delivers very good quality care.
