Posted on 04/22/2019 12:41:23 PM PDT by SleeperCatcher
We are continually amazed at how tone-deaf freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is when it comes to the issues of the day and wonder a) if she has anyone on her staff who is versed in them; and b) if not, why not?
Because she really needs someone who is; she would avoid a great many faux pas if she did.
Take her latest comments on the scandal-ridden Veterans Administration; she claims it “ain’t broke” so we ought not to be fixin’ it.
At a town hall event in New York last week, she actually argued that the system provides the “highest quality of care” to veterans and that any plans to fix it are nefariously designed to maximize profits, not assist veterans.
Even though the VA is a government-run healthcare system.
I’m glad you had a good experience with them.
I don’t need to go there, so if my avoiding them gives somebody else a slot who needs it, it’s a win-win.
Thanks SleeperCatcher.
Disability rating is only 10$ and priority is high. I could up the dis-rating but am not compelled to do so.
I have no problem getting seen, it’s just that I prefer private care because I can afford it and it’s a zillion times better.
I know the VHA system very well from my days as a health scientist. They are good people in a bad setting. They try hard and need to pump themselves up with cheerleading talking points.
For eample,
ICARE
I = Integrity
C = Commitment
A = Advocacy
R = Respect
E = Excellence
ICARE is a cheerleading chant, placards like it and others up and down the halls of VA med centers.
What kind of effed up organization needs these moronic mottos plastered on its walls?
Why is it that the VA can’t retain good people? Why is their dissatisfaction with working conditions?
They often have state of the art technology. Their facilities are usually quite clean.
What is it?
It’s the false bravado of government ‘accountability’.
You have to follow the government culture. Screw the patient unless it falls into routine tasks like handing out pills or drawing blood.
It’s not the people, it’s the culture.
Government healthcare sucks period.
Oh, it can look good on occasion but when it comes to decisions in the chain of command, it can kill you unless you have a really good doctor that cares and they are few and far between in VHA. The reason they can’t keep good doctors is because of the culture. It sucks.
Private care has its downside as well but nowhere near the severity of government-run systems.
A short anecdote on a couple of my experiences:
1. I needed a new knee, and preparatory PT. VA didn’t have room to get me in right away so they sent me to the Capitol Athletic Club (they have Physical Therapists there). That’s where the Judges and Senators...even the governor goes.
And my CHOICES for where to get the surgery done were Travis AFB or UCSF teaching hospital.
2. I threw my back out. I emailed the doc asking for an appointment and why. He responded within the hour via phone and asked if I want to come in or just go to a Chiropractor. I chose chiropractor and they had the auth for 24 visits sent over the same day.
With my established chiropractor, well known and highly respected.
My VA care is exceptional.
Far better than any I have received in the private sector.
Ours was also
AOC, the great ‘teacher’ of our time, is gonna end up learning the hard way.
I am retired US Army. I have been to the VA horse-pittle in Birmingham, AL, ONE time, and that was to take the physical for by VA disability. That is the only time I even wanted to go in that dump. I’d rather die in the car on the way to Dr. Pol’s Vet Clinic up in Mee-chee-gin, than use that dump. You wait for hours and hours for an appointment that you had that morning at 9 a.m. and they finally saw me in the middle of the afternoon. I feel for any veteran that has to use that place. I haven’t heard reports of any deaths from there, but I know many a person that has gone there and seen a doctor, and needed follow up care and instead of getting any appointment within the month or so, they waited six, eight, ten or more months for a follow up!!! That is simply outrageous!!! Do they think the condition will some how improve by the time the person gets the appointment??? Reminds me of the murderers out in Arizona at the VA where those people died WAITING for an appointment!!! In this veteran’s humble opinion the Veterans Administration, especially the medical side, is a national disgrace. Even the disability side is a JOKE, yes yelled and in all caps!!! You file for your disability at the time of retirement or when you leave the service after your enlistment is up. I had to wait almost a year to get my appointment for my VA disability. That started my TWENTY-YEAR FIGHT with the VA to get my puny 10% VA disability raised where it should be for someone filing for a damaged spine, gun-shot wound in Vietnam, two bad knees, both shoulders with rotator tears, which resulted in my having to have two back (with the 2d one a spinal fusion), three right knee (with the last one a knee replacement), both shoulders cut on, and other assorted surgeries, which resulted in me having 10 surgeries from 2008 thru 2019. That goes with the three I had while in the Army for a grand total of 13. Thankfully these 10 were in civilian doctors and hospitals and not with the stinking VA. I’d take my chances with a guy and a coat hanger in a back alley before I’d let VA touch me.
What regional center are you part of?
VA healthcare can be exceptional here and there but in general, it’s not and it all boils down to government culture which cannot be avoided, There is on escape.
Most of the VA care providers are quite content and likable as long as things follow policy. As soon as a situation arises that clinic policy isn’t clear, then problems occur. Problems occur because it’s a vertical command structure with very little lower level decision support. Competent careworkers will mill around not knowing what to do because someone somewhere needs to give the ok. A vet can die in that environment.
In my recent incident, it wasn’t going to cost the VA a dime because the transportation assistance was funded by a county vets program. All I needed was a note. But the PA at the VHA center was following a mantra he was programmed to follow which is don’t say yes unless someone in the chain of command says yes for you. When you don’t have to say yes, you don’t need to risk issues of accountability.
In government healthcare, it’s much more important to be ‘accountable’ to policy than to the patient. If the patient suffers or dies, you can’t get in trouble if you followed policy.
These places def need fixing, just do not mess with the ones that do work sufficent. We totally agree all is not Well fix those like Years ago this is not right.
All I know is that the VA Center in Salt Lake has done a great job for me. Better than my private insurance did.
Its long past broken. AOC’s brain is the only thing in America more defective than the VA.
Much of the VA system sucks. There is serendipity, however. Even a blind squirrel will find a nut every so often. I am a Vet. I wouldn’t go to a VA for ANY reason.
Mather, CA...Norcal Region.
It really depends on the clinic or hospital. The vary greatly in good service. The Phoenix VA is known far and wide to be corrupt and bad news.
The VA didn't pay the bill for the stitches, and mailed a questionaire 6 months later about why I went to the ER in the first place. Doc and hospital sent me straight to collections, without even billing me, claiming VA wouldn't pay, I paid and that was that...(Except for lasting damage to my credit report)
9 YEARS LATER, last fall, the VA sends me a "decision" that exactly as I had though at the time, the ER visit was covered. 9 FREAKING YEARS! I'm glad it was just a dozen stitches!
Didn't anyone tell this buffoon that government agencies don't operate on a profit margin? That's what the private sector does.
Double or triple face-palm time.
Anything with Alexandria Ocasio-Kotex’s name should have a barf or puke alert.
Same goes for her antimsemitic sisters Omar and Tlaib.
Your Mather VA health center is a defacto extension of nationally ranked UC Davis Medical Center. Residents and medical students rotate through it. The high ranking standards of UC Davis lift that center up.
Your Norcal VA center is not nationally ranked, it is not exceptional in and by itself. It benefits from proximity and affiliations with an exceptional teaching hospital.
Your Norcal VA health center is about a tenth the size of its benefactor, UC Davis Medical Center. Veterans would benefit from attending UC Davis Medical Center or a satellite of the same directly. The federal government should sell the Norcal VA Center to UC Davis to become a satellite. There would be positive impacts both in health and budget. Budgets for VA health centers are more often bloated with top-heavy administration. Administration loads for private hospitals run about 25% whereas VA health admins run about 50% to 75%.
I’m glad you’re happy with your healthcare but your view is likely skewed by effects from the nationally ranked healthcare system in UC Davis. Your experience is not generalizable to the VHA in toto. I advocate shutting VHA down over a period of years and farming out its employee and patient bases to private and university-based medical centers in close proximity.
Is she following a blueprint of everyone she absolutely MUST alienate?
I mean-pissing off that WHOLE strata of voters we call US veterans? Really? That’s a lot of votes to throw away!!
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