[jazusamo]

It's inexcusable if true that Tammy Duckworth said this and it looks to be true.

[donozark]

If you are service connected, you are service connected. PERIOD!
If not service connected, different rules apply for Priority Group assignment.

[Ron H.]

.... once you’re enrolled in the system, everyone in the system is entitled to care on the same terms.

True. (know this from personal experience)

[Chode]

Duckworth or Dykeworth???

[easternsky]

Parts of that are true, its a fact but should not be when comes to care or Medicine. The doctor looks at rating before He orders your Meds, or sechudles you for tests. And depending on your rating how soon you get some tests.

[Boogieman]

Tammy Duckworth is what we would call in Chicago, a “patronage” pick for her job. Basically, she let the Dems use her to bash Bush, and they couldn’t get her elected, so they gave her a bureaucratic appointment as a payoff. She shouldn’t be expected to actually know much about the VA or her job.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks jazusamo.

Earlier, we had Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggesting (correctly, actually) that the national debt that's gone out of control under Obama is a threat to our national security... What Veterans Affairs assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs Tammy Duckworth said while campaigning for Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois today may have been closer to the party line, but it was farther from the truth. Duckworth, a combat injured Iraq veteran herself who unsuccessfully ran for office before being appointed to her high Veterans Affairs post by President Obama, told a fellow disabled vet that in the VA health care system, she's more equal than he is... she is actually engaging in a sort of passive-aggressive, rank partisan "Blame Bush" attack, with the whole "previous administrations...didn't spend enough to take care of everyone" line... combat-injured veterans do get a higher priority rating for care, but that rating only impacts whether a veteran has to pay any co-pays or not. That rating has no bearing whatsoever on how long it will take to be seen by a doctor, and has no bearing at all on the level of care a veteran may receive.

[stylin19a]

....it’s a bureaucracy that was put into place in previous administrations The Clinton administration

[america-rules]

If you have a rating of 50% or higher you get the same treatment as someone with 100%. It doesn't matter if it's combat or non-combat as they're both service connected

Where the combat rating has a little more pull is for someone that is rated under 50%.

But, a 50% rated non-combat related vet will get a higher priority then a 40% combat rated vet.

The big key with getting VA coverage is the 50% rating.

[rlmorel]

Good gosh. What a lamebrain. I can’t believe she said that.

[usmcobra]

She’s part of the Veteran’s Administration, then she should fix it.

[chilltherats]

This broad got her job because she’s a broad who was combat-injured - she’s a trophy. Other than choppers and bullshit, she knows nothing and is obviously unqualified for her job.

With the way she’s dishing it out, she could be returned to active duty working the chow line.