Another Trump interview and more lies and I find especially obnoxious the one about Veterans’ health care being the worst. GOP Presidential candidates spout a lot of nonsense about veterans’ health care and refuse to acknowledge that VA health care is better than medical care in general!
There is no doubt the VA must always enhance access for all veterans, to use the access issue as an excuse to privatize health care for veterans is ludicrous.
The truth is the VA is not as bad as it may have been in the mid-1990’s; in fact, upgrades have made VA-provided healthcare better than most. Here are the facts:
A MarketWatch story headlined “For Quality, it’s hard to top veterans’ health care” asked “Where can you find the highest quality health care in the U.S.? Believe it or not, many studies and independent experts point to the Veterans Health Administration as among the best.”
Dr. Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director of Rand Health (a division of the Rand Corporation) said “the VA generally stands out on quality. You’re much better off in the VA than in a lot of the rest of the U.S. Health-care system. You’ve got a fighting chance there’s going to be some organized, thoughtful, evidence-based response to dealing effectively with the health problem that somebody brings to them.”
Another study McGlynn co-authored for the Annals of Internal Medicine, found “the VA outperformed its community health-care counterparts by 20 percentage points in preventive care. It also performed significantly better on chronic disease care and in overall quality.”
Based on passage of the health-reform law that took full effect in 2014 “experts say the VA’s evolution offers lessons because many of the pilot projects and quality-improvement initiatives the new laws specify are similar to the VA’s approach.
Harvard School of Public Health associate professor Dr. Ashish Jha, won’t say VA is superior to other medical stand-outs in the health-care system but did say “What I do know is that the care in the VA is consistently very good and certainly much better than average. They have in some ways brought the rules of supply and demand to bear in assuring the care they deliver is much more efficient. I do think there's something ironic about that, that a government agency was doing it before the private sector was."
The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study comparing veterans health facilities on 11 measures of quality with fee-for-service Medicare and on all 11 measures, the quality of care in veterans facilities proved to be “significantly better.”
Then there’s the Annals of Internal Medicine’s study that compared veterans’ health facilities with commercial managed-care systems in their treatment of diabetes patients. In seven out of seven measures of quality, “the VA provided better care.”
So in contrast to unsubstantiated claims of politicians about VA care, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (it ranks health-care plans on 17 different performance measures) awarded their seal of approval to the VHA system that “in every single category outperforms the highest non-VHA hospitals.”
As the country’s largest health-care provider, the Department of Veterans Affairs is viewed as a leader in improving quality of health care for patients who use VA facilities. The National Committee for Quality Assurance underscored that “veterans who use VA health facilities are significantly more likely than other patients – including those with private insurance – to get quality care. In general, VA patients receive consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.”
Dr. Donald M. Berwick, president of the Institute for Health Care Improvement (and a top health-care quality expert) praises the VHA’s information technology as “spectacular.”
The venerable Institute of Medicine noted that the VHA’s “integrated health information system, including its framework for using performance measures to improve quality, is considered one of the best in the nation.”
So when you hear these rants against the VA, be aware that the ideologues are using anecdotal charges to privatize VA health care and to supplement their proclaimed desire (and 63 failed attempts) to repeal health care provided by the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA).
Obviously so-called free-market conservatives claim alleged shortcomings at veterans’ hospitals justify their contention that government shouldn’t be in health-care; then they suggest America should shut down the whole system and provide veterans with vouchers.
When you hear charges against VA medical care, be sure to challenge the “spin” and ask for facts. If you’re not convinced that privatizing the VA is NOT what we need to do, ask a veteran you know who actually uses the system.
“The quality of care is outstanding,” said the American Legion’s deputy director for veterans affairs and rehabilitation.“In the latest independent survey, 81 percent of VHA hospital patients express satisfaction with the care they receive, compared to 77 percent of Medicare and Medicaid patients.”
Based on what I know from veterans and families I’ve met at VA facilities here in Columbus, there’s wide-spread satisfaction with the care that most get at VA facilities and we should work together to ensure that happens for all veterans needing medical services.
Of almost nine million veterans enrolled, the VA treats 240,000 veterans each and every day!
Sorry for the long story but I’m tired of hearing VA healthcare under attack by guys running for the highest office in the country - not one of whom has served in the U.S. military.