4 ms·

One minor goal for me this year is to ignore most of the news and focus mainly on one specific topic that I can learn to a useful level. I think I'm going to ch

One minor goal for me this year is to ignore most of the news and focus mainly on one specific topic that I can learn to a useful level. I think I'm going to choose the US veterans administration. Why? 1) Having moved US -> UK, I wish the US had something like the NHS. 2) I've heard multiple veterans decry the quality and responsiveness of the VA healthcare is some pretty drastic terms. 3) I know from Rep. Capuano's mailing list the GOP has been trying for years to reform Ye VA in some way. I suspect that until people stop being unhappy with the VA, that a large chunk of Americans will associate government-run healthcare with incompetence and inefficiency. This stands in stark contrast to the British perception of the NHS, so I want to know what's up.

canadian_voter 10y ago
The National Health Service? That's communism, silly. And communism is bad. More seriously, the American people just don't trust their government to be competent or efficient. Only about 20% describe government programs as "well-run."[0] Although more than 50% seem to think that it's doing an okay job on health care at the moment. It would be an incredible undertaking to establish something like the NHS in the US, and the political will just isn't there. [0] http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/beyond-distrust-how-americans-view-their-government/ http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/beyond-distrust-how-a...
- keithpeter 10y ago
  The NHS is actually organised as a large number of locally managed nodes. Doctor's practices (GPs) are self-governing to some extent, and hospitals are managed by trusts. There has been a lot of reorganisation recently (the Tories always reorganise the NHS, it is a thing they do). My knowledge of the US is limited but I imagine that a US version of the NHS would be organised by state and then by district hospitals. Plenty of moving parts at the back end but at least the patient just sees the single payer front end.
  - afarrell 10y ago
    Also there are commissioning groups? I also want to look into how the NHS works in more detail.
    - keithpeter 10y ago
      There are and I'm hazy about how it all fits together. Might do some googling once I've rested up today (we saw the New Year in last night)
- afarrell 10y ago
  Right, my feeling is that democrats, by failing to pay attention to the effectiveness of the VA, are shooting themselves in the foot. But maybe I'm wrong and the issue has complexities I'm not yet aware of.

canadian_voter 10y ago

The National Health Service? That's communism, silly. And communism is bad. More seriously, the American people just don't trust their government to be competent or efficient. Only about 20% describe government programs as "well-run."[0] Although more than 50% seem to think that it's doing an okay job on health care at the moment. It would be an incredible undertaking to establish something like the NHS in the US, and the political will just isn't there. [0] http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/beyond-distrust-how-americans-view-their-government/ http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/beyond-distrust-how-a...

keithpeter 10y ago
The NHS is actually organised as a large number of locally managed nodes. Doctor's practices (GPs) are self-governing to some extent, and hospitals are managed by trusts. There has been a lot of reorganisation recently (the Tories always reorganise the NHS, it is a thing they do). My knowledge of the US is limited but I imagine that a US version of the NHS would be organised by state and then by district hospitals. Plenty of moving parts at the back end but at least the patient just sees the single payer front end.
- afarrell 10y ago
  Also there are commissioning groups? I also want to look into how the NHS works in more detail.
  - keithpeter 10y ago
    There are and I'm hazy about how it all fits together. Might do some googling once I've rested up today (we saw the New Year in last night)
afarrell 10y ago
Right, my feeling is that democrats, by failing to pay attention to the effectiveness of the VA, are shooting themselves in the foot. But maybe I'm wrong and the issue has complexities I'm not yet aware of.