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Post by graybeard on Oct 4, 2009 19:43:05 GMT -6
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Oct 5, 2009 14:06:39 GMT -6
From the numbers I can find, the VA is cheaper than even Medicare on a per-patient basis. Using the 5.1 million patient total, and using the Treasury Department's total for VA Medical Outlays of $32 billion, comes out to about $6,270/patient per year. (Top of Table 5, page 14, in the monthly Treasury Dept. Report.) Using the Treasury Department's total annual outlays for Medicare { from Table 8, page 30: adding together outlays for "Federal Hospital Insurance" (Part A) and "Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance" (Part B & Part D)}, and assuming 46 million Medicare beneficiaries, the annual outlay-per-patient is ~$10,000. Assuming these numbers are correct, the VA costs only about 60% that of Medicare. However, it should be noted that these are different patient populations. Medicare patients are much older on average, since the starting age for Medicare in most cases is 65 years old. So the average age of Medicare patients is well over 65, and almost certainly over 70. VA patients on average are younger. As such, their average medical costs would be expected to be lower. I still believe the average cost of covering patients under 65 would be much less than Medicare's $10,000/year cost. I'd expect the average cost of covering under 40 patients, if drug coverage was excluded, to be less than $4,000/year--given that the average cost of Part B Medicare is only $4,000/year for patients in the over 65 age group.
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