The VA: Another reason for single payer

Waiting turmoil at Phoenix VA hospital and other VA sites obscures the question of whether American veterans are appropriate and unimpeded access to medical services. Due to the essential limitations of the VA program and the distribution of our current health system, the simple answer is that it is not so. Among other problems, many veterans are not subject to VA care and there is no insurance at all.

Today there are 22 million veterans in the United States. Most of them are poor and veterans of Vietnamese age are in need of more medical care.

Over the years, the total population of veterans has declined, but in Virginia state various care is awaited. As you know, some VA administrators have already played games on the scheduling system and are shortening the waiting time. This is the result of the "pay for performance" program. Bring economic benefits to management - Even if this goal could not be achieved due to lack of doctors, retirees are quickly flooded with facilities due to near retirement, qualification change or other factors To do.

But the longest and most heavy treatment is related to judging whether the veterans are eligible for care in Virginia state and how much level they are. This is because VA is not a single payment system. It does not cover everyone, not all veterans have access to it; in our segmented system it is just one of many payers. About 3 million veterans and their families are not fully insured at present.

In contrast, the Single Payer's National Health Plan targets everyone and allows you to choose any health care provider and medical institution within the United States.

VA is the first company to introduce a quality plan that provides system changes and an electronic chart that far exceeds the private sector. Veteran service organization praises VA even if appealing for long-awaited from its high quality.

However, medical plans that benefit low-income individuals and families (politically vulnerable to budget cuts and privatization, including the state of Virginia as today's poor are more likely to join the army) , You may face multiple problems. Health system that benefits everyone - rich and poor, old and young, soldiers and citizens, the whole population. Otherwise, you will face the problem of fund shortage.

Single payment for national health insurance, improved universal health insurance will provide a single level of high quality medical care for everyone. It handles latency in a systematic way, is transparent and accountable, and allocates medical resources based on needs rather than payment capacity.

Medicare and VA are single payment medical systems. VA runs like garbage, but this is a tragedy of the state. However, Medicare is very popular among elderly people. They like "their own" medical insurance. This is a simple system: the government pays their doctor. This is a good definition of a single payer: So then why can not we have Medicare? It is not well understood. The insurance industry may not want this because one payer excludes them in many cases. They will never completely disappear - as the government does not cover all kinds of selective surgery, etc., other countries with a single payer healthcare system still need a health insurance company There is. But the government will account for the majority of their business

The Democratic Party has no plans to abolish Virginia state health insurance or threaten veterans. A single payor bill written by Congressional Democrats suggests that the new citizen-one payer scheme does not affect VA even when it provides insurance to 28 million Americans that currently lack this situation Includes special exemption to guarantee. However, a few weeks before Senator Bernie Sanders announces his new single payor bill, a new nationwide debate will be triggered This new Republican attack will lay the foundation for a shared health insurance dispute I built it. Foundation - And not only that price, whether Republicans can target proposals

In the United States, there are already two single payment system examples. Veterans Administration (VA) The medical system is a socialized single payment program. Taxpayers provide funds for institutions, hospitals are owned by the government, and providers are government officials. The VA system provides superior health care to many veterans, but overall it turned out that this system suffered from costly, inefficient, and long waiting times for care. The second example is Medicare. It began in 1965 and is a single payment system for elderly people aged 65 and older. Funding is brought about by the increase in the proportion of payroll taxes, premiums and federal taxes. By 1990, medical insurance expenditure was seven times the original budget. The current form of health insurance is economically unsustainable