Is Bernie Sanders Right About Medicare for All? How Government-Run Health Care Actually Works

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Is Bernie Sanders Right About Medicare for All? How Government-Run Health Care Actually Works
BY DAVID H. FREEDMAN ON 03/16/20 AT 8:29 AM EDT

Excerpt:

What goes largely unappreciated in this debate is that the U.S. government already owns and runs one of the most successful health care operations in the world. It's taken on the care of millions of some of America's most challenging patients, including residents of isolated rural communities and older patients who need long-term care. It does so while eliminating many of the racial disparities that haunt American health care. It trains most of America's doctors. It is a leader in telehealth, electronic health care records, precision medicine and many other important, forward-looking technologies. It earns quality-of-care ratings that most hospitals would envy. It keeps costs generally below average and charges most patients little or nothing.

The system is the Veterans Health Administration—commonly referred to as the VA, after the broader agency that runs it, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs—along with the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, operated by the Defense Department. Walter Reed serves about a million active-duty military personnel, military retirees and others. The VA serves about 9 million patients, the vast majority of whom are U.S. military veterans. It provides government health care on an enormous scale, entirely administered, delivered and paid for by the U.S. government. If that's not socialism, what is?

https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-right-about-medicare-all-how-government-run-health-care-actually-works-1492411