Posted on 05/20/2014 3:58:30 AM PDT by Biggirl
Conscientious workers at the Veterans Health Administration aware of their employer's reputation for punishing people who expose wrongdoing were given a new outlet last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Oh hell, now Obama is going to be really really mad! I’m sure glad I’m not the one who has to tell him about this. /s
Don’t worry he will read about it in the paper.
If this keeps up it may affect Obama’s golf swing.
Then he’ll really be mad.
This issue has been around for fifty-odd years. The VA is simply a welfare bucket to hand out jobs to losers who can’t get a job elsewhere. It’d be just as well to agree on some GS-related health package for all former military folks, and just downsize the VA to forty people out of some no-description building in Omaha.
Post/thread BUMP!
They get $78 billion a year. Just hand the money out to ex-G I’s in the form of vouchers, and let them sign up for the GS-type health packages. End the torment and failure, along with the countless hours of Congressional investigations that seem to go nowhere. The ex-G I can go locally and get into some pretty decent programs that GS employees already value. No need to carry on this argument.
He read it in the paper back in 2007-8, cause he used it as a reason he should be elected — He’d solve the problem—save the day! /BS
You are correct. As long as I was a military dependent, DOB to 17 and into my enlistment, I knew the VA was trouble. My dad refused to go there even when he was diagnosed with cancer related to Agent Orange exposure while at Cam Ranh Bay.
Never went there, never will even now as I am without health insurance. I can figure it out myself.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3157571/posts?page=3#3
We’re definitely on the same page.
He’s going to be so mad about this, he’ll have to play a third round of golf and take another vacation just to cool down over it.
Obama is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO mad that he will send
even MORE weapons to narcoterrorists and al Qaeda.
Are people in denial over what’s about to happen to our health care system?
Vouchers? Are you serious?
You want to talk about a welfare system... what do people think our health care system is going to be like?
It will make the VA look like the Mayo Clinic.
Well...we seem to be all hot about education and school vouchers for some odd reason....so they must work under the right circumstances.
......and that’s what I said Øcare should do if they are so hell bent on the governMent paying for people’s health care. In the long run the market would provide better HC than the gov’t. But choice is dangerous to the government. As T. Jeff. once said, “I’d rather live in dangerous freedom than peaceful slavery”
I’m a military retiree and I’ve never used the VA. My service was during the post-Vietnam era (1981-2001), so I’m rated as category eight, the last group they’ll treat before they start rounding up civilians on the street.
Between TriCare and my state employee health program, I have very good medical coverage and I’m also enrolled in the federal long-term care plan. However, the VA needs to be fixed for the millions of vets who have earned the benefit and want to use that system. But the best solution may be some sort of voucher system that vets can use in the private market. With that sort of option, many of the veterans who died waiting for care in Phoenix—and elsewhere—would still be with us.
One more thing: I think the VA needs some sort of means testing. I have a former co-worker who’s a retired O-5 (spent 27 years on active duty), so he’s covered by TriCare. Additionally, he spent 27 years as federal employee, so he has that benefit as well, along with Medicare. But for any type of exam or procedure, he runs down to the VA because it’s “free.” And as a Vietnam-era vet who was on the same base with agent orange aircraft (but played no role in that operation), he is priority one for VA care.
Obviously, my former co-worker has multiple healthcare options. Getting guys like him out of the system would open up more space for vets who have no other alternatives.
One more note: at some point, the VA (and Congress) are going to have to deal with the rash of phony PTSD claims that are now flodding the system. I spoke with a recently-retired Army officer and he estimates 70-80% of retiring/separating service members are filing a PTSD claim because it’s “free money.” Sadly, a lot of the phonies get approved while vets who actually suffer from PTSD wait months or even years for a ruling on their claim.
I have another former colleague with a 70% disability rating based on broken leg he suffered in jump training and PTSD, despite the fact he spent 2/3 of his career as a recruiter. These are the types of “cases” that are clogging the system; couple those with an incompetent/corrupt VA staff, and you’ve got the breeding ground for the current crisis.
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