Is There a VA Advantage? Evidence from Dually Eligible Veterans
David C. Chan, David Card, Lowell Taylor
American Economic Review · 2023 · Volume 113 · Issue 11
Abstract
We study public versus private provision of health care for veterans aged 65 and older who may receive care provided by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and in private hospitals financed by Medicare. Utilizing the ambulance design of Doyle et al. (2015), we find that the VA reduces 28-day mortality by 46 percent (4.5 percentage points) and that these survival gains are persistent. The VA also reduces 28-day spending by 21 percent and delivers strikingly different reported services relative to private hospitals. We find suggestive evidence of complementarities between continuity of care, health IT, and integrated care.
Keywords
National Government Expenditures and Health, Analysis of Health Care Markets, Health Behavior, Health: Government Policy, Regulation, Public Health, Economics of the Elderly, Economics of the Handicapped, Non-labor Market Discrimination
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