3 ms·
You would think that the government gains “leverage” by being the only payer. In practice in the US, this is not what happens. Rampant lobbying (i.e. legal brib
by didgeoridoo 7y ago
You would think that the government gains “leverage” by being the only payer. In practice in the US, this is not what happens. Rampant lobbying (i.e. legal bribery) by interested parties causes spending to spiral out of control, since the benefits are focused and the costs are diffuse.
Arguably the NHS model is the only way to get government healthcare to work at all in the US. You would need to gut both private insurance and private hospitals, whose continued political clout would naturally drive up costs if they were allowed to continue existing in their current form.
(In fact, there is already an “NHS-like” example in the US: VA Hospitals for veterans. I’m not sure what we can learn from them, however, as lessons from treating the veteran population may not be able to be extrapolated to the other 300+ million of us.)
- coredog64 7y agoOne possible lesson: Every veteran I know thinks of the VA as the provider of last resort. You can’t sue the government unless they decide to allow it, so at least we’ll see the end of malpractice suits. /sarc
- IG_Semmelweiss 7y agoThe VA had a massive scandal recently. For years, they had chronic problems with timely follow ups and treatment (ergo. Last resort). They were put on notice to improve their patient turnaround times. Miracle ensued -wait times did go down. But as always, bureaucrats played with stats: they achieved the drop by literally IGNORING veterans seeking medical service and appointments. They would simply find a reason to not log the event at all. This went on for the better part of the year when veterans started dying in greater numbers and someone blew the whistle. Claims of reform were made. No one got fired until trump got elected.yet now we start all over again. VA is not what you want for USA