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ANALYSIS: SHOULD VETERANS GET PRIVATE CARE? --
Think-tankers says YES. VFW says NO.
Sen. Larry Craig has proposed legislation
that would move to dismantle the VA. That story here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfMAR07/nf030907-3.htm
Here is analysis...with the usual crop of
think-tankers saying YES...and the VFW standing tall and saying NO.
Story here...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/
index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-2007
0308-18012500-bc-us-veteranshealth-analysis.xml
Story below:
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Analysis: Should vets get private care?
By OLGA PIERCE
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- Amid the recent scandal over shoddy medical
treatment at the Walter Reed Army hospital and with an increasingly
overwhelmed veterans' healthcare system, some advocates say veterans
should be able to get private care.
"Here is a vast and available private-sector system," said Sen. Larry
Craig, R-Idaho, who unveiled legislation Thursday that would offer free
private care to the nation's 2.5 million veterans with service-connected
disabilities.
"Everybody ought to have the opportunity to vote with their feet," Craig
told reporters at a news conference.
The recent revelations about the condition of outpatient services at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center have led to closer scrutiny of all
facilities that treat troops returning home from combat. Though the
Department of Veterans Affairs system is separate from care provided by
the Army, it faces similar difficulties of limited budget and capacity
for the 5 million veterans it serves.
With an unanticipated number of injured veterans from Iraq and
Afghanistan, and an aging Vietnam War generation, some patients face
six-month or yearlong waits for basic services. That crunch has led some
to turn their gaze to the private sector, which has the capacity to
immediately provide returning troops with the care they need.
Some, like Craig, see paying for veterans' private care as an overflow
valve to ease temporary VA capacity overloads. Others see it as a way to
eliminate the perceived inefficiency and unnecessary bureaucracy of a
government-run system.
But some veterans warn against undermining the system they depend on for
healthcare.
Craig's proposal would give eligible veterans an insurance-style card
that would entitle them to free care at any provider of their choice
with "no strings, no ifs, ands, or buts."
"If you have a service-connected disability, go wherever you want,"
Craig said.
The purpose of the program -- other than helping some veterans get
access to care -- is to show how effective most of the VA system is,
Craig said, pointing out that 3 million of the 5 million veterans who
use the system actually have access to another form of private insurance
or Medicare.
It would also be cheaper than the $5 billion proposal to beef up the
system proposed by Democrats, he said.
While there are some problems with the VA, overall veterans are very
happy with the care they receive, he told United Press International,
and it is unfair to group the system in with Army-operated facilities
and overall frustration with the war in Iraq.
"If service-connected veterans leave in droves, we've learned
something," he added. "But if veterans overwhelmingly stay -- and I
think they will -- we've also learned something.
"It is a very important market test of the system."
Such creativity is needed to overcome the current backlog of cases in
the crowded VA system, said Larry Korb, a senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress who served as assistant secretary of defense in
the Reagan administration.
"Right now, the VA is just overwhelmed given that nobody anticipated the
volume of casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan," Korb told UPI. "The VA
care is excellent -- the problem is getting (access to) it."
Veterans should be required to go to the VA first, but should have the
option of going to a private facility if their health needs cannot be
met by the agency, said Korb, who is a Navy veteran.
"The VA should take care of all veterans," he said, "but we've got to
find creative ways to handle the mess we've gotten into."
Others are calling for more wide-scale private-sector involvement.
"One policy solution is obvious: Give wounded combat service personnel
the ability to select the medical facility of their choice for the
continuation of their care," said former American Medical Association
President Daniel Johnson Jr., who served as a medical officer during the
Vietnam War.
In the short run, private providers could give patients packages of care
based on a pre-set payment rate schedule, Johnson wrote Thursday in a
Heritage Foundation opinion piece. In the long run, veterans and
military families should be allowed to participate in insurance plans
similar to options available to federal employees.
Both changes, he said, would eliminate the waste and backlog inherent in
any government-run, top-down system.
Such changes would "immediately reduce the pressure on the apparently
overstressed military health care system," Johnson said. "In addition,
it would also introduce the welcome and salutary stimulus of competition
for value and benefit into military medicine."
Some private-sector involvement -- such as the policy already in place
for rural veterans who do not have access to government facilities --
could help reduce unreasonable wait times, said Eric Hilleman, deputy
director of national legislative services at the Veterans of Foreign
Wars.
However, it could hurt veterans by unnecessarily diverting resources and
attention from the existing VA system, he told UPI. "The VA is a bargain
compared to private care. If we pay for private care, it could have a
negative impact on the overall budget.
"Effectively establishing a veterans' HMO could be dangerous and could
dismantle the brick-and-mortar system of VA healthcare."
The VA has "earned its bad rap," he said, pointing to lengthy waits to
get into the system, and then more waiting time to get care.
But the best solution is to adequately fund the administration's
services, he said.
"We believe the current system of VA healthcare is a sound system that
needs improvement."
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Larry Scott --
