Fuhrman attacks VA and Medicare as “total government failures”

From the September 2 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

FUHRMAN: I wanted to comment on Howard Dean making a comment that --

SEAN HANNITY (host): Tort reform.

FUHRMAN: They've got two great programs already, the VA and Medicare. Total government failures. If I remember right, about 18 months ago, you had a show on here about rats going through Walter Reed. This is where our combat veterans, our men of honor that should get the best care in the country -- and please, tell me a VA hospital that's better than any private hospital in the country. Oh, there isn't one.

So if we can't fix the VA so our combat veterans have private room, the best care, no rats, if they have ongoing facilities, how can you have a public option and public health care?

In fact, VHA and Medicare are well regarded

The VHA currently provides the “best care anywhere.” As Media Matters for America has documented, in a 2005 Washington Monthly article headlined, “The Best Care Anywhere,” Phillip Longman wrote of the VHA: “Outside experts agree that the VHA has become an industry leader in its safety and quality measures. Dr. Donald M. Berwick, president of the Institute for Health Care Improvement and one of the nation's top health-care quality experts, praises the VHA's information technology as 'spectacular.' The venerable Institute of Medicine notes that the VHA's 'integrated health information system, including its framework for using performance measures to improve quality, is considered one of the best in the nation.' ”

2004 Annals of Internal Medicine study: “Patients from the VHA received higher-quality care” than those in a national sample. A 2004 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine study found that "[p]atients from the VHA scored significantly higher for adjusted overall quality." From the study:

Results: Patients from the VHA scored significantly higher for adjusted overall quality (67% vs. 51%; difference, 16 percentage points [95% CI, 14 to 18 percentage points]), chronic disease care (72% vs. 59%; difference, 13 percentage points [CI, 10 to 17 percentage points]), and preventive care (64% vs. 44%; difference, 20 percentage points [CI, 12 to 28 percentage points]), but not for acute care. The VHA advantage was most prominent in processes targeted by VHA performance measurement (66% vs. 43%; difference, 23 percentage points [CI, 21 to 26 percentage points]) and least prominent in areas unrelated to VHA performance measurement (55% vs. 50%; difference, 5 percentage points [CI, 0 to 10 percentage points]).

Limitations: Unmeasured residual differences in patient characteristics, a lower response rate in the national sample, and differences in documentation practices could have contributed to some of the observed differences.

Conclusions: Patients from the VHA received higher-quality care according to a broad measure. Differences were greatest in areas where the VHA has established performance measures and actively monitors performance. [Comparison of Quality of Care for Patients in the Veterans Health Administration and Patients in a National Sample, 12/21/2004]

Medicare's costs have risen more slowly than private insurance. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman noted, "[S]ince 1970 Medicare costs per beneficiary have risen at an annual rate of 8.8% -- but insurance premiums have risen at an annual rate of 9.9%. The rise in Medicare costs is just part of the overall rise in health care spending. And in fact Medicare spending has lagged private spending: if insurance premiums had risen 'only' as much as Medicare spending, they'd be 1/3 lower than they are."

Medicare is extremely popular. A May 2009 Commonwealth Fund study concluded that “elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage, better access to care, and fewer problems paying medical bills than people covered by employer-sponsored plans.” And Mark Blumenthal, writing for National Journal, noted a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services survey that found that in 2007, “56 percent of enrollees in traditional fee-for-service Medicare give their 'health plan' a rating of 9 or 10 on a 0-10 scale. Similarly, 60 percent of seniors enrolled in Medicare Managed Care rated their plans a 9 or 10. But according to the CAHPS [Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems] surveys compiled by HHS, only 40 percent of Americans enrolled in private health insurance gave their plans a 9 or 10 rating."

Fuhrman falsely claims Walter Reed is run by VA

Walter Reed is run by the Army, not the VA. Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the woes of which were the subject of a Washington Post exposé, is a part of the U.S. Army Medical Department, not the Veterans Administration as Fuhrman claimed. Its command staff is made up of active-duty Army personnel.

Transcript

From the September 2 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

FUHRMAN: I wanted to comment on Howard Dean making a comment that --

SEAN HANNITY (host): Tort reform.

FUHRMAN: They've got two great programs already, the VA and Medicare. Total government failures. If I remember right, about 18 months ago, you had a show on here about rats going through Walter Reed. This is where our combat veterans, our men of honor that should get the best care in the country -- and please, tell me a VA hospital that's better than any private hospital in the country. Oh, there isn't one.

So if we can't fix the VA so our combat veterans have private room, the best care, no rats, if they have ongoing facilities, how can you have a public option and public health care?

JUAN WILLIAMS (Fox News contributor): Mark, Mark, if I sat here and told you that we were putting so much money into our veterans hospitals that they were better than any private care facility in the country, you would say, “What is going on? This is a waste.”

FUHRMAN: No, I wouldn't.

WILLIAMS: This is government fraud.

HANNITY: I wouldn't say that about our troops. No way.

FUHRMAN: You know something, our veterans deserve it --

WILLIAMS: Well, they deserve it --

FUHRMAN: -- more than anybody in this country.

WILLIAMS: -- and that's why -- that's why the government and The Washington Post --

HANNITY: Wait a minute. Barack Obama --

WILLIAMS: -- and others exposed it as a scandal.