User:Dchild21/sandbox
Number of Facilities: 1255[1]
Veterans Covered: 9.3 Million[2]
Budget 2020: $85 Billion[2]
VHA Nationalized Healthcare System[edit]
The Veterans Health Administration is a form of nationalized healthcare service in the United States that provides healthcare to Veterans. What makes this type of healthcare different from other forms in the United States is that everything is owned by and operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs as opposed to private companies which is what we see in other parts of the health care market. This means that all the medical facilities that are part of the VHA are owned by the US Government and all the doctors and workers at the facilities are payed by the government.[4] What is a more common model in the United States is that consumers have private health insurance and the medical facilities used are all privatized. As of 2017 the Census found that 67.2% of Americans have private health coverage.[5] Since the VHA is nationalized they receive funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is allocated funds by the federal government.[3] Because of this, Veterans that qualify for VHA healthcare do not pay premiums or deductibles for their healthcare, but may have to make copayments depending on what procedure they are having.[6] The funding the VA receives is split into mandatory, which is an amount of spending dictated by law, and discretionary spending, which is spending that can be adjusted year to year. In 2020 the budget given to the VA was $220.2 billion, of which 56% was mandatory spending and 44% was discretionary. From the discretionary funding, 87.6% was allocated to medical programs which came to a total VHA budget of $85 billion.[2]
History[edit]
Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014[edit]
Since the 2014 scandal in which the quality administration of health care by the VA was brought into question due to long wait times and secret waiting lists, the VA claims wait times have improved.[7] According to a study conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, in 2014 the average wait times to receive health care from the VHA was a little longer, but still comparable to wait times to see private doctors. The 2014 wait times JAMA found were 22.5 and 18.7 days for the VHA and private doctors respectively. The study also found that three years later, in 2017, VHA wait times were significantly shorter than wait times to see a private doctor. The wait times in 2017 were 17.7 and 29.8 days for the VHA and private doctors respectively.[8]
Physicians[edit]
Currently the VHA is experiencing a physician shortage and as of 2018 10% of jobs in the VHA remain unfilled.[9] This shortage can be especially harmful to Veterans since a quarter of Veterans live in rural areas. These are the kind of areas that are most vulnerable to a shortage since they are already isolated and it can be hard to get access to the healthcare they need.[10]
 | This is a user sandbox of Dchild21. You can use it for testing or practicing edits. This is not the sandbox where you should draft your assigned article for a dashboard.wikiedu.org course. To find the right sandbox for your assignment, visit your Dashboard course page and follow the Sandbox Draft link for your assigned article in the My Articles section. |
- ^ Administration, Veterans Health. "About VHA - Veterans Health Administration". www.va.gov. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
- ^ a b c Administration, Veterans Health. "2020 VHA Budget Submission". www.va.gov. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Budget, Office of. "Annual Budget Submission - Office of Budget". www.va.gov. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
- ^ Wallace, Gregory (2014-09-19). "VA hikes top pay for doctors by $20,000 to $35,000". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- ^ Bureau, US Census. "Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2017". The United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- ^ "Your health care costs". Veterans Affairs. 2019-08-08. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
- ^ Bakalar, Nicholas (2019-01-22). "V.A. Wait Times Now Shorter Than for Private Doctors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- ^ Penn, Madeline; Bhatnagar, Saurabha; Kuy, SreyRam; Lieberman, Steven; Elnahal, Shereef; Clancy, Carolyn; Shulkin, David (2019-01-04). "Comparison of Wait Times for New Patients Between the Private Sector and United States Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers". JAMA Network Open. 2 (1): e187096–e187096. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.7096.
- ^ Affairs, Office of Public and Intergovernmental. "News Releases - Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs". www.va.gov. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- ^ Albanese, Anthony P.; Ayvazian, Jemma; Bope, Edward; Van Gilder, Amanda; Pelic, Christopher; Sanders, Karen; Lypson, Monica; Clary, Christyann; Klink, Kathleen (2018-2). "A Year 3 Progress Report on Graduate Medical Education Expansion in the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act". Federal Practitioner. 35 (2): 22–27. ISSN 1078-4497. PMC 6248221. PMID 30766339.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)