I posted some of this elsewhere but it might need its own thread:
Rand came out with a study recently that claims that the VA outperforms all other medical systems in the US, public or private:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9100/RAND_RB9100.pdf
• VA patients received about two-thirds of the care recommended by national standards, compared with about half in the national sample.
• Among chronic care patients, VA patients received about 70 percent of recommended care, compared with about 60 percent in the national sample.
• For preventive care, the difference was greater: VA patients received about 65 percent of recommended care, while patients in the national sample received 20 percent less.
• VA patients received consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.
• Quality of care for acute conditions—a performance area the VA did not measure—was similar for the two populations.
• The greatest differences between the VA and the national sample were for indicators where the VA was actively measuring performance and for indicators related to those on which performance was measured.
And this article claims that VA costs are stable, doing better than the HMO sorts:
How Veterans' Hospitals Became the Best in Health Care - TIME
We currently have a health care industry that goes to great lengths to avoid dealing with sick people.
The Rrs in Congress and in general don't have much to say about the recent proof we've gotten that the insurance industry in general is sorta whacked.
Talk about your entitlement mentality, these folks, along with bankers and too many doctors, operate on the assumption that 6, 7, and 8 figure incomes are rightfully theirs, and scaring those monies out of the public somehow is good and proper.
Don't look now, but we operate at a competitive disadvantage with most other nations in this regard. That's part of why our auto industry is struggling. Forcing small businesses to provide overly expensive health insurance to their employees has to inhibit their growth or even their founding.
Govt. as nanny? How about employer as nanny?