THCB contributor Dr. Eric Novack has been following the unfolding scandal at Walter Reed Medical Center very closely. Eric feels the problems discovered by the Washington Post are indicative of deeper institutional problems at the VA. And deeper problems with government run healthcare systems in general. And as usual, he’s got something provocative to say about it.

When the topic of quality health care has come up at THCB, the 2006 study from Harvard touting the VA as providing the ‘best quality’ care in America gets regularly mentioned.

Reality, however, has finally reached the MSM and the public. This is not a Republican problem.  This is not a Democrat problem.  It is a non-partisan problem.  It is a bipartisan problem.  The problems have existed through Republican and Democratic Congresses and Administrations. And legislators and bureaucrats have been made aware of some of these problems for years and years. 

And yet, nothing significant has changed. The missing interpretation: the absolute fundamental inability for government-run organizations to escape convoluted, bureaucratic, non-meritorious based hierarchies. Anyone still for VA care for all of the USA now?

CODA: From Matthew Holt While I believe that the VA still has its issues, apparently those in the private sector appeared to be convinced by the turnaround in its clincal quality indicators. Or at least Managed Care Magazine has been fooled into thinking that, if of course things are as bad as the WaPo’s collection of anecdotes tells us.