Posted on 03/01/2007 5:32:24 AM PST by FLOutdoorsman
True, so let me ask: Is it a secret that there are problems with the military health care system?
No.
A top enlisted officer. Yeah, ok.
There is truth in every post here. Now, my truth. My husband is a veteran retired after 24 years of service, having served during Korea and Vietnam. He has gone to Birmingham, AL VA and Tuscaloosa. AL. VA. Both places suffered neglect of a self-serving, self-satisdfied bureaucracy but interspersed with good, caring medics and drs.
In Birmingham, especially, the waiting rooms were backlogged and he has sat half a day waiting for his name to be called for an appt. previously made. This VA is connected to University hospital and uses their drs. and specialists.Many of the people working there move as if encased in stiff molasses; rooms can (or could in years past) be found both pristine and looking like some of those in Bldg. 18. He quit going there because when Medicare kicked in, he could go to a dr. of his choice, and I insisted he do so.
VA hospitals are the best example I can think of for the argument against total govt. care or Hillarycare. The facility housing building 18, is just another boondoggle where beancounters and little beaurocrats gone mad with their little bit of power have prevailed over what oughtta be. Until the top dogs quit issuing orders and assuming they will be/have been carried out, this will continue. Unfortunaterly for the CG, he will have to walk the halls on a daily basis and poke his nose into every nook and cranny, usurp the authority of supervisors who are not doing their job, and above all, punish incompetence. When he starts trying to get rid of civil service career employees who are not doing their job, gridlock will deteriorate into overt battle lines drawn and civil/gorilla warfare will erupt.
Dear God, how I despise beaurocracies--I learned to hate them from inside, working for state and federal civil service, where a competent few are hampered by the many who are looking for quitting time and payday.
vaudine
Amen. I tell every bonehead I come across who thinks socialized medicine is a good idea to join the military for a few years and then get back to me. Inevitably they have some pie in the sky idea that we'll all going to the Mayo Clinic for every hangnail and it'll be "free." Yep, except after 10 years or so of loving bureaucratic care the Mayo Clinic will be indistinguishable from Building 18.
Thank you (and your husband!) for telling it like it is! So, would you say that in spite of the sources for the WPo article, there is a grain of truth to the story? And, that we owe our vets better?
Yes to both. That said, the WaPo is opportunistic and just skimming the story for another chance to slap the Administration and Pres. Bush.
Beaurocratic arrogance, carelessness, self-satisfaction being what it is, I simply do not know how to get it fixed. Even throwing enough money at the problem will not fix it without dedication and vigilance at ALL levels--how do you get that? At all levels, a lot of appropriated money is always wasted.
Maybe we can just divert the money to "global warming", and really use it for a good cause. Sarc/
vaudine
Heck, its the American Way. Anyhoo, I'd give a crap about all this, but I'm too busy "supporting the troops".
Okay, fine, let's all just fight each other... it seems to be what we do best.
I'm outa this thread.
I know who they are and what their agenda is but thefact that the WRAMC PAO is not slapping back tells me that there may be both smoke and fire here.
I will make a comment to the two other posters who haven't lost their perspective yet.
Just a look at the way the "story" is headlined and what is served up in the first few paragraphs shows the writers have an agenda other than the welfare of our troops.
After all, our troops are having drunken revelries in barracks, etc. WaPo does what they need to do to SELL NEWSPAPERS to their audience. This is the spin their readers wish to see.
As for the writers, they are working on their next Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, etcetera, at any cost.
Contrary to the insults and innuendo aimed at me on this thread, I am not afraid of discussing the truths of veterans' care and benefits, as I believe I stated previously, but I refuse to do so on the basis of THIS ARTICLE, written and published by the enemy.
Absolutely true.
That said, shame on President Bush and his Administration for providing them with such a golden opportunity, smack dab in the middle of the Washington Beltway.
I spent a month in Walter Reed, and then three months in a VA Rehab center. The VA rehab center was very good, Walter Reed is like a large dungeon. The officers and NCO's working health care are very sincere in their efforts, but it's a cold, outdated facility. They employ top notch medicine, but it didn't seem to operate all that well. The VA system I go to runs more like a top notch hospital.
While true, it still does not give the answer to how this Admin can overcome what has been going on through countless administrations. I reiterate, the VA boondoggle is only what will occur in medicine overall if we get total govt. health care.
The beaurocracy and all workplaces will continue to deteriorate unless we can get back to individual responsibility.
vaudine
I was specifically asking 'blu', who did not have an answer.
I have heard that the care at different VA locations varies.
I work in healthcare, vaudine, and I have for several years. It is a cumbersome enterprise that becomes ever more difficult to manage well. And yet, we still have a high success rate... but that does not make news in the media.
One cannot deny that US health care has a high success rate; only think how much better it could be if everyone acted responsibly and there was less govt. and lawyer interference!
We have several health care providers in the family, and the drs. are greatly hampered by ever more aggressive lawyers causing rising prices and ever less paying medicare/govt. and even private ins. The nurses are hampered by regulations and paper demands, dwindling cleanup and maint. help.
Much of Medicare expense to the taxpayers comes from 2 sources:
1. CYA orders from drs. for testing; unnecessary ambulance rides and tests for patients/clients in nursing homes and assisted living, also for CYA purposes.
2. Recipients of Medicare who do not check their bills. I caught an erroneous charge to Medicare a few years back for $4300 for a week's chemotherapy
for my husband, who did not have anything to have chemo for and had never been to the cancer clinic for more than blood work.
vaudine
Your comment is pretty ironic given that when the Post first reported the problems at WRMC most FReepers refused to believe it because it was reported by the Post.
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