Posted on 07/16/2014 8:20:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Department of Veterans Affairs needs $17.6 billion in additional funds over the next three years to meet patients’ needs and fix the troubled agency’s problems, its acting director said Wednesday.
Testifying for the first time on Capitol Hill, interim VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that the money would help VA medical centers decrease appointment waiting times and hire more doctors.
But the request divided lawmakers. Democrats, including Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, supported the appeal, while Republicans, including Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, questioned whether VA care would improve if it received additional funding.
“This sounds so similar to what we’ve heard over the years,” Johanns said, adding that the committee had routinely met previous VA requests for additional funding.
“If you can’t clean up your act, then guess what? You lose out,” he said. “I don’t think you need more billions and billions of dollars.”
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
“The VA is full of evil”
Really, I’ve missed that.
It certainly isn’t perfect but I’m grateful that it works as well as it does.
“Dump the VA and go to a voucher system. Problem solved. And now the leeches at the VA can get a job where they’re expected to produce.”
And to bootstrap the needed capacity, sell all the VA facilities to private HC companies, or community medical facilities, and let these entities have free reign on who gets to keep their job and who gets a pink slip.
“Dump the VA and go to a voucher system. Problem solved.”
Were you under the impression they wanted to solve the problem?
“I am used to the long wait times it comes with the territory. The Veteran patient population is older and sicker than the population as a whole and this trend will only continue for at least the next 50 years.”
Montanajoe, you deserve way better than what you say you are getting. In exchange for your service, you should be getting the best medical care this country has to offer and getting in on a timely basis. The waits you say you experience, are unacceptable.
My doctor prescribed an ultrasound for me yesterday and I had it done this morning, and I am 73 and on Medicare. That is the level of care you are due!
The VA works pretty well for most Veterans at a reasonable cost to the tax payer.
In my view dismantling the system is just another attack on the military by the left and far to many on the right.
Nope. Bigger government is the problem. Not the solution.
typical answer to any and all that ails any worthless federal agency.
Throw MORE money at the problem...
Never do away with any worthless federal anything even though about 80%of the fed is worthless
Sorry Joe but you and I will have to disagree. I joined the ARMY in 1969 was wounded in 1971 and discharged in 1972. So far the only time I’ve been in a VA was to take my ex wife to work on a few days that the roads were iced up. She still works for the VA and my sister and brother in-law have both retired from the VA. While I have no personal dealing with the VA I do have a pretty good understanding of it’s operations and it is an abused system by both the patients and the employee’s.
My brother in-law receives 81 thousand dollars a year and my sister 58 thousand a year, my ex makes a little over 80 thousand as an RN. Before my ex went to work for the VA she was a charge nurse at a nursing home making 60 thousand taking care of 122 patients. She had 4 halls and one LVN and 2 aids for each hall, she now has 2 halls with 1 RN 2 LVN’s and 4 aids per hall and has never had more than 30 patients total. Most of her patients are Addicts, alcoholic’s and people being treated for non service related problems.
With that said, my new wife is the ER Director at the local private hospital here in West Texas where she gets VA transfer patients in daily. The local VA just sends them out if there’s a real medical problem that needs to be addressed. They have no ER and no ability to handle emergency’s yet they did put in a new helo pad out front that so far has only been used once by a transfer crew that walked across the street to Long John Silvers for lunch.
Shut them down and give the VETS ID that gives them care at any hospital they walk into so they don’t have to travel 40 to 70 miles just to find treatment and stop just feeding them drug’s! They are a disgrace to VETS with service related injuries and nothing more than a bucket for those that feed off of them.
I will personally fix it for half that.
Sorry VETS, that money is going to the new “American’s” who are streaming across our borders by the thousands. No money left for those who protect/protected this nation. (sarc)
Sorry VETS, that money is going to the new “American’s” who are streaming across our borders by the thousands. No money left for those who protect/protected this nation. (sarc)
Fire him and half of the rest of the administrators and then ask the acting head again if he needs any more money you’ll fire some more to get the money —
17.6 Billion......huh?
Not 17 billion or 18 billion, but a precise 17.6 billion. Gee, isn’t it strange they know down to the penny exactly how much it will cost to “fix” the problem?
However, they can’t tell you exactly what the problem is and what caused it.
A billion here, a trillion there......what the heck!
Last I heard it does not cost a penny to tell your workers to get their act together and do right by the patient!
“The VA works pretty well for most Veterans at a reasonable cost to the tax payer”.
I used to work in VA and been a patient in the VA for 23 years now. Some of the best healthcare in the country is the VA Medical System, especially the ones that work hand-in-hand with a civilian Healthcare University. Of course not all VAs are lucky enough to be attached to a top-rate medical university. Then you have smaller VAs all over the country that struggle to keep up with the neverending flow of new veteran patients from these neverending wars in the Middle East. New vets take priority, old farts like me go to the back of the line. But I accept that. I am used to “hurry up and wait”. Learned it in the military. The VA has some employees and most are overworked. I salute every one of them, especially direct healthcare providers. I’m getting fed up with all the “experts” like Hannity and the rest piling on the VA night after night. They need to concentrate on that traitor Bergdahl. And the VA has always sent vets to an outside provider (and paid for it), if they can’t do the job. This is nothing new.
Didn’t know you need money to fire all those pompous ass elitist. More money to throw in the pit.
“In my view dismantling the system is just another attack on the military by the left and far to many on the right.”
So from what you say, you are willing to continue to be like an “abused wife.” and accept substandard care? For me, it’s sad to understand that you won’t fight for what should be your right as a veteran. And I surely hope that you are able to stay healthy in spite of the VA.
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