I'm actually surprised this didn't take place in Florida. Pill Mill Central.
I thought the VA is the model for single payor. As a government run hospital, I would think there would be no problems like this.
I don't see how the VA is a model of single payer. It's a transactional benefit, paid for by general taxation for the benefit of a small segment of the population.
I can't find any medical board action on him..It's almost as if the VA isn't so much a single monolithic system but a series of individual sites with their own unique leadership who make decisions on how to do things. I seem to remember someone posting such a thing upthread
Also, FWIW, Tomah is in the middle of f-cking nowhere. The place isn't exactly going to be crawling with good psychiatrists. I'm not sure if the OIG report for the place is open for public reading, but it's really really damning, even moreso than what you read in the media.
Hows Medicare doin?
I said it was the closest the US has to something like single-payer. I said that because a majority of Americans will eventually receive Medicare benefits and that many Americans have paid into the system. It's not exactly a single payer system in that not everyone pays into it and not everyone receives it or will receive it. Beyond that, I don't know how it's working or not working. Unlike the VA, it's an insurance system, so in terms of how it's working, I would assume that if a doctor takes Medicare, it works or doesn't work for the patient as well as any other insurance coverage does. I know it's very expensive and creates large expenditures, but I would argue that's a result of the very fragmented system the US has.
You know more about the VA than I do. I have never argued that the federal government is efficient or even terribly functional (I have more experience with the FDA than any other federal agency, and that experience is enough to make me think the system is mired in dysfunction). But I do think efficient and functional single-payer healthcare systems exist. Satisfaction with the NHS, for example, is quite high. And within the US, state governments are often more functional than the federal government (though in recent times have needed bail-outs from the federal government), and programs like Medicaid seem quite successful, although underutilized.
The va may not have reported it. Cover it up. It makes the va look bad too. All those checks and balances...
conspiracy theory much?I follow international news. NHS satisfaction is generally high. Google it.
Show me the exact links
I know lots of pp docs in WI who have lost their licenses over these issues. Esp with prescriptions of opiods as this is a big problem there.
You've never had to clean up a mess of a patient who had a private provider think QID xanax was a great solution for his GAD? Or the private practice addiction board-certified psychiatrist who tells your patient "here's some benzos to help you with the anxiety of me having to prescribe you suboxone" (yup, saw that one last year)?
A lack of proper oversight by state medical boards is hardly a VA-specific problem. But you seem to be more about arguing a specific agenda rather than discussing the case at hand.
And works how? Where is the money comong from? Yhe sky?
What about the fact that we spend about twice as much as countries with nationalized healthcare? Our government spends enough to do what other countries do, it's just very inefficient as the whole thing is balkanized and we don't have twice as good of outcomes--in fact, in most cases our outcomes are worse when it comes to the basics like life expectancy and infant mortality.
OMG…the horror!!
