Don’t Get Sick in St. Louis (part 2)
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This is part 2 in a multi-part article on the US Healthcare system. Read Part 1
So, what can we do about our healthcare system? I believe we have a coming health care crisis. With the aging population this isn’t going to be any better. Unfortunately, our current system rewards doctors and hospitals not for preventative care, which keeps people out of hospitals, but when we get sick. It’s funny that the only health care system that has been praised for treating patients is the VA.
Why is that funny? The Republicans scared people into believing that the Clinton health plan wouldn’t work because we’d have bureaucrats in Washington making health care decisions. The truth today is that we have bureaucrats at the health insurers making our decisions instead. Their primary motive is profit, not patient care. The VA’s primary motive is patient care and they’ve done some amazing improvements to the traditional model.
BusinessWeek had a fantastic article on the VA system in one of their July issues. The title? “The Best Medical Care in the US”. How has the VA become a shining beacon in a land of crap?
There is one big reason why the VA stands above other hospital chains. It gets to keep the money from any efficiencies implemented. It does not get passed through to insurance companies through competition. So, the VA has an incentive to reduce costs and it has done so drastically when compared to other medical expenses.
The VA has managed to keep costs per patient flat for a decade while medical costs have increased by double digits just about every single year. And the VA hasn’t done it by cutting corners either. The VA system has been ranked as one of the best hospital systems in America by several independent researchers in several areas including chronic and preventative care. And for the past six years it has rated the highest in patient satisfaction surveys. Not bad for a system that spends 20% less per patient on average. So, how did the VA pull off this transformation?