The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122219 Message #2689733
Posted By: artbrooks
29-Jul-09 - 01:46 PM
Thread Name: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad?
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad?
Health insurance costs for Federal employees (including Members of Congress) vary according to the plan chosen by the employee. For example, Blue Cross vs. Postal Workers, high vs. low option, self vs. self and family, fee-for-service vs. HMO, etc. The government pays 75% of a weighted average and the employee pays the rest. If an individual wants a plan with lower co-payments and deductibles and greater benefits in one area or another, he can get it - and pays more for it.
The cost of VA care per patient is something on the order of 80% of the national average, while (system-wide) the quality of care is well above the statistical average. However, since the VA isn't an insurance system, one cannot really compare its costs with that of "private insurers". This report, while a couple of years old, has all kinds of numbers for the data-obsessed. Having worked in the VA system for a number of years, I'd say that there are three core reasons for that lower cost: all VA physicians (and other staff) are salaried, so there is no charge-per-procedure; the VA aggressively negotiates when it buys pharmaceuticals and other medical items; and the nationally integrated electronic patient record system eliminates the need for maintaining, copying, filing and transmitting paper records (as well as improving the quality of care).