Hey, Don't Save Me From Government Health Care!

The whole health care debate has been completely confusing to me and a lot of the veterans and troops I talk with every day. See, for us, most of us got free, government-run health care.

First, troops in the Active Duty component and their families get TRICARE, the largest component in the military health care system, which allows them to go to military hospitals and doctors, as needed, and reimburses them for medical costs at private doctors, if they have to go there. For all intents and purposes, it's a mix of the British system (government provided health care) and the Canadian system (a single-payer government run system). The system is so good that virtually every veterans advocacy group has backed extending it fully to the National Guard and Reserve, since they are being deployed now more than ever.

Basically, it's a force readiness issue -- giving this kind of care to troops -- and why support for extending it to the Guard and Reserve is so strong. With all the added pressures from wars and increasing natural disasters, it's essential that all our service members are given preventative care, to ensure they're ready when we need them. We're simply a stronger nation when our troops are kept healthy.

For many, there's also the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is almost exactly like the British system of care. The government builds the hospitals and clinics. The government pays doctors, nurses, administrators, and others a salary. For those with service-connected injuries and disabilities sustained in war, the VA is invaluable. So much so, in fact, that every veterans group has tried to expand eligibility for VA care.

Finally, there's also what's called TRICARE For Life; basically the opportunity for many veterans to reenter the TRICARE system later on. And after you reach the Federal retirement age, that old government-run TRICARE will supplement your government-run Medicare, so you have little or no out-of-pocket expense.

So what's the point here?

Even at the worst of times, when the Bush administration underfunded the VA by billions, leading to backlogs and some real horror stories, the Veterans Health Administration, which administers care, consistently hovered at 80 percent approval among its patients, higher than those in the private system. With the funding improvements in the budget and new construction of hospitals and clinics through the stimulus program, those numbers will absolutely go higher.

TRICARE has been rated the insurance plan with the highest customer satisfaction -- better than any private plan for six years running!

Those on the Right keep harping on how they're looking to "save" the American people from the horrors and evils of government-run insurance and care. Well, troops and veterans don't want to be saved! In fact, when completely fabricated and false rumors started spreading that health reform would mean troops and veterans being tossed back into the private system, the major Veteran Service Organizations freaked out and wrote a letter to Congress demanding that they NOT be thrown back to for-profit care.

A final point: If government-run insurance and care is so evil and so horrible, then why do conservatives keep supporting leaving America's troops and veterans in that kind of system? Do conservatives hold America's warriors in such low standing that they'd subject us to a "Nazi" system, us Rush Limbaugh has called it?

You can't have it both ways. Either TRICARE and the VA are superior systems, worthy of our sacrifice, and thus a government-managed health system can be great. Or, they're terrible, scary, and Communist-Nazi schemes that have to be eliminated, leaving troops and veterans to find their own care for their lost limbs, brain injuries, and other wounds.

America's veterans and troops would say the former. It's why for years they have fought to expand the government programs, not kill them. That's why we find it so confusing that conservatives want to bar the doors and keep those Americans who want to be in a public system from even having that choice.

Follow Jon Soltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonsoltz

Comments

[Rustmeister]

"America's veterans and troops would say the former. It's why for years they have fought to expand the government programs, not kill them."

Looks to me like you haven't been in the Tricare wars for very long.

Our fight isn't to expand it, it's to keep what we have.

Congress has been after Tricare for years.

[creolechild]

Part II --

"The message will be unmistakable: caravan with us to Washington and help make a public demonstration of support for Single Payer Health Care that will be heard around the world."

"Imagine..­."

"Thousands of cars pulling into the nation's capital for a protest on the White House lawn. The sidewalks are filled with supporters carrying signs in support of the Mad As Hell Doctors who have captured the imagination and the ignited the passion of their fellow citizens. We wave and honk at the camera crews, as do the endless line of cars behind us, as we wend our way toward the White House. On every antenna, on the backside of every car, and flapping like flags from sidewalk supporters, is the symbol of this new movement: the White Ribbon."

[creolechild]

So far, this appears to be the most coordinated effort to demonstrate for the single-payer option. Many of us were focused on September 13th as the date to demonstrate in Washington. Maybe we should throw our support behind these physicians' efforts. Please help me spread the word.

If you click on the link their website it provides additional information, a sign-up for the events, and a map that indicates the cities they will stop in enroute to Washington.

http://www.madashelldoctors.com/

"On September 8th, a caravan will cross America to deliver a clear and simple message to our elected officials in Washington­."

"On September 8, 2009 a group of dedicated Oregon physicians will take the message of Universal Health Care "on the road" in a wrapped and branded Motor Home headed for Washington D.C. Our cross-country mission: to stop in big cities and whistle stops alike, conducting pre-booked, local and national media appearances for a curious press. Every move we make along the way will be recorded on camera and then edited and uploaded to the internet that same day. This will allow our Mad As Hell Doctors Tour to leverage the edited video segments on social networking web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, et al. In this way, our effort becomes an unprecedented hybrid of reality television and political activism that offers people the opportunity to follow us, in real time, as our story unfolds.''

[GearRatio]

My only reserva!tion about Government funded health care is the necessary requirement the the Government have access to all citizens' medical and financial records. Even the Patriot Act didn't go that far!

Of course, the Government already has full medical records for Armed Services personnel; soldiers and sailors have no privacy...­.

[Tunde15]

The insurance companies already have the medical and the financial records of everyone insured. Unless you're arguing that the insurance companies are better custodians of these records, I fail to get your point. Oh, and why is it better for the insurance companies to have these records?

[GearRatio]

Insurance companies don't have armies, and don't have police forces. (Thank goodness for that; they have quite enough power over our lives as is!)

Still, allowing the Government this degree of information access would be a necessary consequence of any sort of universal health care program. It may very well be a worthwhile trade off, privacy versus universal coverage, but, does make me uneasy.

[Tunde15]

Insurance companies already have your medical records; that's why they know you have a pre-existing condition and can thus deny you care. I fail to see why the same information in the hands of the government is any more evil.

[demfriend]

I about fell off my chair while reading an article in one of the weekly newspapers from the Navy and it was about Mental Health and Tricare offering up care on the internet. I somehow doubt that the quality of care on email for someone who is having mental health issues will reach the standards they should reach and yet this is the new way to deal with mental health? I want our troops and their families to get everything they deserve and I seriously doubt without watchdogs we can be sure of the VA and any other Tricare insurance being given free reign but with that all said, I also want the quality of care for us all! I want the quality of care that the Brits and Canadians get and whether it's called Socialist or not it works much better than the nothing many are getting now.

[murphysgirl]

Great post, but we need you out there educating the masses on your viewpoints. An Iraq vet extolling a government run health care program would be a vital in rebutting the flurry of health care myths out there.

[Teleprompter]

So many posts below state "Why can't we have that too? I want what they have." What a bunch of whiners!

Do you want healthcare for life and a free college education? Then join the Army or Navy, serve your country, and do something productive with your life.

Reduction in cost starts with reduction of liabilty insurance.­..this begins with TORT reform. Texas tackled TORT reform and costs have come down, while the number of doctors practicing in the State has increased.

[darker]

All this hullabaloo about "tort reform" is PHONY-BALONEY.
LESS than 2% of health insurance costs are for malpractice.
That's LESS than TWO-PERCENT.

CORPORATE GREED that constantly increases our insurance cost--
while reducing coverage eligibility!-- is responsible for THE COST of private health insurance.

A national single-payer health insur. plan is needed to COMPETE with corporations that
BILK both employees and employers with outrageous fees. Ridiculous that they call
payments to them "premiums". It's NOT a "premium"! It's a GREED-SCAM disaster.

[GearRatio]

I think your percentages may be a little bit off; the figure I've heard quoted is that malpractice lawsuit payouts amount to 1.6% of health care costs. Given that these payouts are made, by and large, by the insurance companies that provide malpractice insurance, probably need to double that to cover their "nut," bringing tally to ~ 3%. Still pretty small beer!

The point that is often raised in this connection is that doctors order way more diagnostic tests than necessary as a "CYA" measure, driven by the threat of malpractice suits. Not at all sure I buy this....

[jestanle]

Are you serious? I was in the TRI CARE system for 7 years. It works because it is run with military precision on a limited scale. You can't apply that kind of system to a country the size of the US.

[FINJA]

They aren't making everyone take government insurance first off. You can keep paying some fat rich guy for mediocre care. Thats fine.

And limited scale? Now it is offered to the guard and reserve, DOD civilians, family members and other military dependents. They cover MILLIONS.

No matter what logical argument is presented to right-wingnuts, they can never accept them. Sad that only some of us are living in reality.

[Rustmeister]

DOD Civilians? Since when? I just checked the Tricare website, and there's no beneficiary category for DOD civilians.

[lgillooly]

The truth is the Republicans are owned by the health Industry and wall street. Insurance companies add NO value to our health care. They are not necessary, but make billions by denying care and rescission. Any fool can see this. Unfortunately the R's have control of the media. Talk radio is 91 percent Conservative( corporate talking points). The masters of propaganda like Rush, Hannity and Beck are paid huge salaries to lie and incite hatred. The people who listen to these corporate shills have been duped and vote against their own interests. Propaganda works if it saturates and repeats the misinformation.

[mediacrazed]

This article raises a refreshing real world voice in this otherwise perverse debate over this hugely important issue. I wish this point of view could get the kind of widespread media exposure it deserves, but others are hogging.

[menmykoko]

Your service is appreciated greatly. You are also expecting a rational decision by (for the most part not including the blue dogs)brainwashed masses from Fox News and a well organized scheme by corporate lobbyists who would rather have money in their pockets than help those in need. The difference in those types of people and the decisions they make and you is that you are willing to take risks and make sacrifices for others and both the lobbyists and the brainwashed Fox viewers are not. It's basic human decency to want to help others not based on whether they "deserve" it or not. Just my opinion.

[blueken]

Clear evidence that even though most of us have access to TV, radio, newspapers and the internet, we are information starved. We have become a society that is only interested in what makes our paycheck at the end of the week bigger. Most people I meet are just not curious about the underlying information that guides thier life. It also makes it pretty clear that the media is spinning our information. Drug, insurance and investment companies have become the biggest consumers of media advertising. For the last 10 years the media outlets have become proporties of fewer and fewer entities. So whith the flow of information in fewer hands and their main source of revenues coming from a small part of the economy, is it any wonder that certain "inconvient facts" are presented in a biased manner?

[overd0g1]

Maybe it's because they are government employees. Duh.

[Rojellio]

Duh indeed. Active Duty Service men are NOT employees. They are Government PROPERTY, of course they are going to take care of you. Every piece of equipment needs to be maintained.

The VA.... OF course Veterans like it. It is far more than we might have, which is nothing. The VA is not an experience that civilians would tolerate. I would like that we treat our heroes better. Congress oversights, and funds the VA ... a black mark on their resume, and a reason NOT to trust them with everyone's health care.

[rad21]

Comprehensive healthcare should empower physicians and medical science to be the driving force. Current cost-drivers are health-insurance, pharmaceutical, bio-tech, and bio-engineering companies, led by management interested in their bottom-line; hospital and nursing home administrators; medico-legal system, and consultants. Many doctors claim patients, directing their own treatment options that are not indicated, contribute to higher costs; as do families reluctant to provide basic-care and support to their sick relatives. These cost-drivers contribute to the steep and unsustainable cost-curve. None of these cost-drivers are addressed in the current debate in Congress or town-halls.

The current debate adds to the fragmentation. Complex formulary of insurance and funding only makes the healthcare system more cumbersome and inefficient, adding further irrationalities and alien motivations within the system. And good patient care is lost in the shuffle.

It is the front-line of medical care (physicians, nurses and allied medical professionals) that will make-or-break the new comprehensive healthcare. The old medical adage of "captain of the ship" is an important principle, even in the 21st century; and the one who should be held responsible to "bend the cost-curve­."

Short-term, significant savings (i.e no additional dollars needed) can be achieved through reforming payments to insurance and drug companies; as well as providers (doctors and hospitals) by using "Best Practice" paradigms. For more info write to glawrenc@m­­vnhealth.­c­om

[tomorrowman58]

Health care should never exclusively be in the hands of merchants and Wall Street speculators. Period!
Change the System!!