When the VA enacted Choice - allowing veterans to get care in the private sector at 115% of the cost to tax payers - wait times INCREASED. Health outcomes got worse, too.
Replies
Privatization ALWAYS increases costs and decreases results for consumers. #PrivatizationScam
aug 21, 2025, 7:16 pm • 5 0 • view
We need MORE doctors in this country. If we ever want Universal Healthcare, we will have to think about at least subsidising medical school
aug 21, 2025, 5:15 pm • 13 1 • view
It is very expensive to become a doctor.
aug 21, 2025, 5:42 pm • 4 0 • view
The number of slots to medical school is severely limited on purpose: They want to keep their incomes high. That puts big bucks in everyone's pockets all the way down the line: From the medical teachers to the college administrators. Unfortunately it makes medical care very expensive too.
aug 21, 2025, 7:17 pm • 5 1 • view
We need to stop criminalizing medical care.
aug 21, 2025, 5:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Yup. Hated it.
aug 21, 2025, 11:56 pm • 0 0 • view
And Community Care Providers didn't get paid and so they stopped taking patients so veterans were left without care.
aug 22, 2025, 12:10 am • 1 0 • view
Perhaps we would have better wait times if that DoD asshole didn’t fire my doctor and his team.
aug 22, 2025, 3:49 am • 3 0 • view
Well you create a system meant to extract the most value instead of the best treatment… what happens? When the system puts profits above the customers what happens? I’m not blaming the doctors, I’m blaming management.
aug 21, 2025, 4:23 pm • 128 4 • view
I’m Blaming for profit insurance companies.
aug 21, 2025, 4:38 pm • 138 7 • view
Hospital executives at for profit hospitals have had joined the business model of execs getting unsustainable reimbursement compared to the workers.
aug 21, 2025, 6:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Bingo
aug 22, 2025, 1:40 pm • 0 0 • view
The insurance companies are helping to drive away the doctors
aug 21, 2025, 5:23 pm • 59 3 • view
Unfortunately the business side of our medical structure is super complicated and the doctors are bottom-tier and actually get paid poorly considering our loans and educational requirements. A lot of docs hate the idea of gov't involvement, but there's gotta be some checks & balances somewhere.
aug 21, 2025, 8:49 pm • 22 0 • view
How much time do you spend doing prior authorizations and generally dealing with insurance companies?
aug 21, 2025, 9:02 pm • 13 0 • view
Do people NOT understand how Canada gets such cheap meds? The Gov't forces them to negotiate. IKYK.
aug 21, 2025, 9:57 pm • 2 0 • view
I can NOT imagine what it is like over there now. I haven't had to deal with US insurance since 2017.
aug 21, 2025, 9:54 pm • 2 0 • view
Zero—I live abroad
aug 22, 2025, 1:45 am • 1 0 • view
None yet, but I really fear for my future with prior auths 😭 The thought of a peer-to-peer with someone in a completely different specialty keeps me up at night. Idk a solution, I just have heard way too many docs (typically older) hate on the idea of the gov't negotiating w/ insurances
aug 21, 2025, 9:41 pm • 6 0 • view
As a retired doc, I can tell you the government rate was low but at least they paid, private insurers fought every charge, demanded prior auth for generic birth control and sometimes demanded $ back from surgery done 2yrs ago because they changed their mind, all for single payer here 🤠
aug 27, 2025, 10:49 am • 2 0 • view
I have never ever ever heard of a doctor complaining that the govt was pushing back on the insurance companies. I have quite a lot of experience with insurance. 🤷♀️
aug 21, 2025, 10:19 pm • 0 0 • view
I guess it's been them bitching about the government trying to control healthcare and mistrust of their actions. Mostly in the context of ACA "making everything unaffordable" (per a doc I talked with a few mins ago). Another one said "do you really trust the govt to manage healthcare"
aug 21, 2025, 10:28 pm • 0 0 • view
Medicare (govt plan) has been managed for decades and had high customer satisfaction rates and high efficiency. Yes, I would trust a reasonable govt (not Trump) to manage a health insurance plan. They already did it
aug 22, 2025, 12:05 am • 0 0 • view
Well, contrary to your anecdotal example, people LOVE getting cheaper meds.
aug 21, 2025, 9:54 pm • 8 0 • view
Yes! Sign me up for cheaper meds!!!
aug 21, 2025, 9:56 pm • 1 0 • view
AMEN!
aug 21, 2025, 9:57 pm • 1 0 • view
I would love cheaper meds and some Canadian influence! I'm definitely NOT on the same page as those old private-insurance loving docs 😂
aug 21, 2025, 10:00 pm • 6 0 • view
I had to deal with insurance, in various roles, for most of my work career and I even worked for an agent for awhile. I HATE the insurance industry with the power of 1000 blazing suns.
aug 21, 2025, 10:04 pm • 18 0 • view
Dissolve private insurance companies and let taxes fund the care.
aug 22, 2025, 6:09 am • 2 0 • view
As a licensed counselor who deals with Medicaid and Medicare consistently. We typically don’t have difficulty getting patients what they need from insurance. They are our best paying insurance, too! You have more hoops to jump through with documentation up front, and annually, but I’ll take that.
aug 22, 2025, 2:27 am • 2 0 • view
People fail to understand that insurance is a business and remains in business based on making a profit. Maybe costs would go down if we didn’t file so many lawsuits and there was a cap on monetary awards. We all pay with higher insurance premiums and doctors leave because of the cost of insurance
aug 22, 2025, 2:32 am • 1 0 • view
Health insurance used to be non-profit. It’s should have remained non-profit.
aug 22, 2025, 2:42 am • 1 0 • view
I must not be old enough to remember that. Some hospitals are non profit. I remember when if you were picked up by an ambulance and they took you to the closest hospital, if you didn’t have insurance they sent you to the county hospital and some died in route.
aug 22, 2025, 2:56 am • 0 0 • view
It’s alarming to see a wife beg for money because they don’t have $150,000 for heart surgery and keeping him alive. Whether you live or die shouldn’t depend on how much money is in your bank account. Those days are largely gone. The wealthy pay for concierge doctors. No waiting for an appointment
aug 22, 2025, 3:06 am • 0 0 • view
Are they bottom tier or is it because they were educated in another country? During Covid most of the doctors in charge of the emergency section were at least 90% foreign born. Maybe US educated doctors feel they are better or just want more money and prestige.
aug 22, 2025, 2:20 am • 0 0 • view
"bottom-tier" as in the insurance companies don't care about docs... I'm not saying anything about individual docs or regions/quality of education. I'm only saying insurance companies just don't respect any doctors and see them as a business expense
aug 22, 2025, 2:24 am • 1 0 • view
Got it. Some of their denials are ridiculous. But in essence they are actuaries. What’s the success rate of certain drugs or surgeries? How old is the person and other mitigating factors. Then there’s the overwhelming amount of fraud and the lack of oversight and some are Senators
aug 22, 2025, 2:49 am • 1 0 • view
I used to develop insurance "products." Then came the ACA. It was a compromise with an industry lobby. When I read it, I couldn't help but think it was designed to fail. Medicare for all is the most accessible solution for now.
aug 21, 2025, 10:03 pm • 3 0 • view
Why are we profiting on people’s health
aug 21, 2025, 9:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Agree w n3rv. People want OUR money to continue to go private? Have insurance companies dictate our healthcare? There will be private options available if you believe this hypothetical situation w occur. We're not going back. Ppl can complain about it all they want. Better have a solution also
aug 21, 2025, 4:33 pm • 1 0 • view
And it is hypothetical. We've never tried healthcare for all, once. No one knows yet Learning from other's mistakes and creativity is possible. Create a system that avoids the pitfalls.
aug 21, 2025, 4:38 pm • 1 0 • view
I mean we kinda know. All the other CIVILIZED countries have it and it works just fine.
aug 21, 2025, 5:12 pm • 2 1 • view
I think some blame goes to management of for profit care, but even more goes to insurance companies who collect as much as they can, and pay out as little as possible.
aug 21, 2025, 5:45 pm • 4 0 • view
It's ALL for profit healthcare. That's what the goddamn individual mandate was so fucking important! The bigger the pool the more afford the insurance.
aug 21, 2025, 9:53 pm • 1 0 • view
There should be no such thing as for profit healthcare. It's FKD up.
aug 21, 2025, 9:50 pm • 4 0 • view
Same ….
aug 21, 2025, 9:18 pm • 0 0 • view
As a veteran my care has been pushed out to regional specialist who collect lab work but operate as if i am a machine with individual parts that do not affect one another. Hence each specialist can take a payment & tell me it's the other specialists area of work, not there's; with no primary care
aug 21, 2025, 5:09 pm • 0 0 • view
The government bad private sector Reagan mantra has devastated this country. Even their anecdotes don't hold up. My local DMV is more efficient and friendly than 90% of the businesses I deal with regularly. Some things shouldn't fall under the for-profit model and health care is one of them.
aug 22, 2025, 1:58 pm • 0 0 • view
Also, 1151 claims can’t be made when a private provider screws up.
aug 21, 2025, 4:28 pm • 0 0 • view
aug 22, 2025, 2:42 pm • 0 0 • view
While I support universal healthcare I don’t have much faith given the example of the VA . I thought it had gotten better since they no longer had to wait for approval before being treated by the VA. Many died while waiting
aug 22, 2025, 2:10 am • 0 0 • view
😢
aug 22, 2025, 6:54 am • 0 0 • view
The choices became slim & expensive! This isn’t universal healthcare
aug 22, 2025, 8:57 am • 1 0 • view
We have focused so much attention on access that we have forgotten about the quality of treatment. In the process, access has also fallen off. Health systems are forcing doctors to essentially become piece workers instead of medical practitioners. Mine retired instead of doing more paperwork.
aug 21, 2025, 4:29 pm • 4 1 • view