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Health care has been hotly debated in the last few years, and many people have theories about what is wrong and how to fix it. Some 47 million people have no health insurance, but even those who think they are well covered may encounter unexpected difficulties getting the health care they need when they need it. We speak with Jonathan Cohn, author of Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis.
Many pundits look to other countries for good models of health care, but one author believes we have an excellent model right in front of our noses. Philip Longman set out to find an innovative health care system in America and discovered the surprising strengths of the system run by the Veterans Administration.
Guests: Jonathan Cohn, senior editor of the New Republic, contributing editor at the American Prospect and a senior fellow at the Think Tank DEMOS. His new book is titled SICK: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis. (Photo is of Jonathan Cohn)
Philip Longman, Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care is Better than Yours.
There is all this talk of some proposed health care systems being "socialized medicine" (as if that is a bad thing) and compare them to Euro style systems saying that we don't want to end up there.
But from what Jonathon was saying on the program it sounds like many Euro program are better in terms of heart attack survival rates.
Is there any study that defines a set of metrics like heart attack survival rates, infant mortatiliy rates, etc and then uses those metrics to compare all the various health care systems across the planet?
Thank you for today's program. I wish that a copy of this program could be sent to every Senator and Congressman we have. Of course they are taken care of for life, so no problem with health care for them.
We do have the most expensive health in the world. Shame on our government.
I have been receiving healthcare through the VA outpatient system for the last 5 years. I agree there is much to respect in the VA system--especially those folks who work in the system. There are some problems however.
I live in a rural area and I have to drive two hours to the nearest VA hospital to get a colonoscopy or to see a specialist or to reach a VA emergency room. There are many good hospitals near where I live but they are not in the VA system so I have to pay for their services out of my own pocket.
Also, in my experience, something has been impacting VA hospitals in a negative way over the last three years. Many good people have left the system. There is often disarray where there was none before. There are rumors of "Don't let them send you to the VA hospital in city X - it is a total mess." Maybe Philip Longman should do a followup to find out what has changed.