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For a large number of different outcomes, the VA is superior to private care. It has a disproportionate footprint because "The VA does something bad!" is nation

by Fomite 9y ago

For a large number of different outcomes, the VA is superior to private care. It has a disproportionate footprint because "The VA does something bad!" is national news, while "SmallSizeMidwestCity Memorial does something bad!" isn't. It's not perfect, by any means, and struggles with cost constraints (veterans are sympathetic, but sympathetic doesn't mean well supported), but many of its quality outcomes are superior. See, for example, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2618816 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/articl...

maxsilver 9y ago
Your getting downvoted for this, and I have no idea why. Have other folks actually stepped inside a VA facility? Many of them are old/outdated/underfunded it's true. But some of them truly do offer superior care to a typical private hospital (in staff, facilities, and outcomes). The VA system could use significant improvement, absolutely. But if the fear-mongering 'worst case scenario' is that everyone gets VA levels of healthcare, that's still a huge win for all of America. That's a great baseline standard to start with, that no one should ever fear falling below. If an uninsured American is critically injured, the options today are "A: Die" or "B: Bankruptcy". Having a new option "C: Universal VA-levels of healthcare" would be a win for literally every American, even for Americans who are lucky enough to already have great private insurance and who would never need/use this option themselves.
- mter 9y ago
  > But some of them truly do offer superior care to a typical private hospital Which ones? Because that has not been my experience at the hawaii facility. From my appointment time being written down on a piece of paper then they send me my actual appointment date a few months later to the doctor being an hour+ late, my personal experiences have been subpar. Add in how doctors/nurses at multiple hospitals do comically incompetent things like reusing insulin pens/colonoscopy bags/not washing equipment, the general sense of incompetence when they lose my records every few years, or talking to my buddies who got out and ended up working at the VA and have told me that they'll never get treated there, and I do not have the same sense of "superior care" that you're talking about. If I want hep C, I'll go to the VA. If I want medical care, I'll go anywhere else or just not go to a doctor.
  - Fomite 9y ago
    "Add in how doctors/nurses at multiple hospitals do comically incompetent things like reusing insulin pens/colonoscopy bags/not washing equipment" I work in hospital infection control research - if you think your private hospital isn't making many of those same mistakes, I have some very bad news for you...
  - Clubber 9y ago
    I would think it would be safe to say that the best VA hospitals are better than the worst private hospitals. I don't think that's a stretch.
    - ryandrake 9y ago
      I’d love to hear from anyone who actually uses services from the VA whether they’d trade that system for the “pay or die” system the rest of us get.
OnMyPhone 9y ago
My dad is a veteran and now uses the VA for everything he can now. His first experiences weren't that great, but you could easily tell it was because they were understaffed and underfunded. Once they got to the point where he could start seeing specialists and whatnot, everything since then was a breeze. He had a surgery on his stomach. It wasn't life threatening, but he was in some pain. The VA was able to get him an appointment with a Dr. and schedule the surgery within a few days to a week or so. He also needed eye surgery. This one he had to wait for his eye to get to a certain point before surgery. The VA was able to get him to see an eye Dr the same day he went in for something else. Then less than a month later he was going to go in for surgery but something came up so he had to have it rescheduled. They were able to reschedule the surgery for the following week. I would consider this a success story. He was hesitant on getting the eye surgery because of costs that were told to him by the previous company, but the VA told him he would not be paying anything, and he didn't.

by Fomite 9y ago

maxsilver 9y ago

Your getting downvoted for this, and I have no idea why. Have other folks actually stepped inside a VA facility? Many of them are old/outdated/underfunded it's true. But some of them truly do offer superior care to a typical private hospital (in staff, facilities, and outcomes). The VA system could use significant improvement, absolutely. But if the fear-mongering 'worst case scenario' is that everyone gets VA levels of healthcare, that's still a huge win for all of America. That's a great baseline standard to start with, that no one should ever fear falling below. If an uninsured American is critically injured, the options today are "A: Die" or "B: Bankruptcy". Having a new option "C: Universal VA-levels of healthcare" would be a win for literally every American, even for Americans who are lucky enough to already have great private insurance and who would never need/use this option themselves.

mter 9y ago
> But some of them truly do offer superior care to a typical private hospital Which ones? Because that has not been my experience at the hawaii facility. From my appointment time being written down on a piece of paper then they send me my actual appointment date a few months later to the doctor being an hour+ late, my personal experiences have been subpar. Add in how doctors/nurses at multiple hospitals do comically incompetent things like reusing insulin pens/colonoscopy bags/not washing equipment, the general sense of incompetence when they lose my records every few years, or talking to my buddies who got out and ended up working at the VA and have told me that they'll never get treated there, and I do not have the same sense of "superior care" that you're talking about. If I want hep C, I'll go to the VA. If I want medical care, I'll go anywhere else or just not go to a doctor.
- Fomite 9y ago
  "Add in how doctors/nurses at multiple hospitals do comically incompetent things like reusing insulin pens/colonoscopy bags/not washing equipment" I work in hospital infection control research - if you think your private hospital isn't making many of those same mistakes, I have some very bad news for you...
- Clubber 9y ago
  I would think it would be safe to say that the best VA hospitals are better than the worst private hospitals. I don't think that's a stretch.
  - ryandrake 9y ago
    I’d love to hear from anyone who actually uses services from the VA whether they’d trade that system for the “pay or die” system the rest of us get.

OnMyPhone 9y ago

My dad is a veteran and now uses the VA for everything he can now. His first experiences weren't that great, but you could easily tell it was because they were understaffed and underfunded. Once they got to the point where he could start seeing specialists and whatnot, everything since then was a breeze. He had a surgery on his stomach. It wasn't life threatening, but he was in some pain. The VA was able to get him an appointment with a Dr. and schedule the surgery within a few days to a week or so. He also needed eye surgery. This one he had to wait for his eye to get to a certain point before surgery. The VA was able to get him to see an eye Dr the same day he went in for something else. Then less than a month later he was going to go in for surgery but something came up so he had to have it rescheduled. They were able to reschedule the surgery for the following week. I would consider this a success story. He was hesitant on getting the eye surgery because of costs that were told to him by the previous company, but the VA told him he would not be paying anything, and he didn't.