Posted on 05/24/2014 7:41:56 AM PDT by Innovative
The VA problem is not Shinseki; it's socialism. The Veterans Affairs health care system is completely government run. It is a pure single-payer program. National Review Editor Rich Lowry calls it "an island of socialism in American health care." He is right. I've been arguing this all week.
For years, President Obama has been talking about fixing the VA. But he never stayed with it. And now he says he's angry and wants accountability. But he will never understand that the single-payer government-run system is the real problem.
This VA scandal is a reminder that government-run single-payer health care does not work. And it makes it clear that the entire system must be changed. We owe it to our veterans, and everyone else, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Someone recommended that Vets should get vouchers that would allow them to go to any doctor, that would instantly fix the problem.
GOP Rep. Proposes Health Care Vouchers So Vets Can Opt Out of VA Health System
BY: Larry O’Connor
May 22, 2014 1:20 pm
Rep. Andy Harris (R., Md.) is a Navy vet and a medical doctor who spent years at the VA. He has probably forgotten more about health care issues for our veterans than most congressmen will ever know. And he wants vets to have a choice so they can opt out of the government-run bureaucracy and access the private health care system.
This morning I interviewed Harris on WMAL radio in Washington, D.C., and cited my Washington Free Beacon colleague Andrew Stiles’ terrific article exposing how liberal pundits and politicians held the VA health system up as a “huge policy success story, which offers important lessons for future health reform.”
Audio at:
I’m not letting Shinseki off the hook so easily. He is a 4 star general, he knows how to run a staff, he knows how to compel reports and updates, he knows how to see the status of his command. Complaining that some bureaucracy has blocked his knowing what is going on is his ONLY defense, and that is no defense for a guy who’s supposed to know how to over come that.
And if he cannot overcome that, then he REPORTS it to Congress.
The VA is nothing more than an extended sick call and orderly room for troops who have had active/reserve duty. It’s problems appear to be that its buried under huge layers of bureaucracy. There is no more reason for it not to work than there is for any other non-profit hospital consortium not to work. And LOTS of non-profits hospitals work just fine.
The VA’s problem is bureaucracy, and I’m also betting big on waste, fraud, and abuse.
If you think what’s happening in the VA is bad, you just wait until OBAMA CARE goes full bore. Every one will feel the full power of what this government can do to everyone. That there will be “DEATH PANELS?” You bet. Any one with a health problem that is too old or too young, that would require expensive treatment, will be left to die. The only ones that will get treated for anything, will be those in the ages of 20 to 40 years old. Why because they can still be able to “CONTRIBUTE” to society. You see, it’s only those “CONTRIBUTERS” to society, the useful ones, according to the government, will be allowed to survive to “CONTRIBUTE” their labor.
This could eliminate not only the bloated bureaucracy of the VA, but the giant budget that supports it.
WeMUST also remember that what we see today with VA health care is what we all face tomorrow with Obamacare.
Does anyone remember Obama saying that veterans volunteered for service so, they should pay their own health care? I do and at that time is posted that congress volunteered too.
I don’t blame Shinseki so much as I do the nature of any overgrown bureaucracy. Obama’s guilt lies in his history of broken promises and apathy.
Obamacare is the exact same brand of bureaucracy on steroids. (NOW WITH 30% MORE CRONYISM!!!!)
No, that wouldn't fix the problem. In that situation, you end up with VA medical care operating no differently than Medicare -- which is also a purely socialist single-payer system. Veterans would end up dealing with a doctors that don't accept the VA vouchers because they can't deal with a VA system that limits payments to doctors for medical procedures. Does this sound familiar?
And the VA’s budget just about doubled for next fiscal year, from 84 billion to 154 billion...
Guess where that new revenue is going???
To bring on more non-doctor desk jockeys hell bent upon rationing the care to our Veterans killing them piecemeal...
Something tells me it would be safe to bet nothing will be done about it as far as cleaning up that top heavy government organization...
EXACTLY!!!!!!!...in a capitalist free enterprise system, all failing or marginal enterprises are driven out of business.....they self-fix or die...just the opposite of a socialist system where even mediocrity is rewarded
It was someone’s idea to create secret lists. This idea seems to have occurred simultaneously at over 20 VA hospitals. This is not socialism. This was the work of one person. This person needs to be identified.
This country needs a reset button.
Socialism creates waiting lists, but if Shinseki was administrating properly, the list wouldn’t be fraudulent as well
Nancy is talking about rolling the V.A. Into zer0 care as a fix
When it happened at one facility it was an outrage.
When it happened at two facilities it became a trend.
It’s happened at many facilities which means it’s policy.
The author is wrong. Both is at fault. The problem was identified years ago and no action was taken. Thats poor leadership
If that 4 star general could not do the job he was hired to do, and couldn’t go to Congress and report that he couldn’t, then he should have announced what was going on and quit the job. He had options. He’s not the only one at fault, but he SURE isn’t free of responsibility!
Agree with you....Shinseki has “zero” management, leadership and human relations skills!!! Shinseki is a cold, icey, aloof, uncaring, Obamabot, that should be fired immediately!!! Shinseki won’t be, because his boss, POTUS Barack Hussein Obama, is exactly the same “deadbeat” that Shinseki is!!! Americans should be ashamed of themselves for electing and supporting these anti-American military low lifes!!!
An Opt-out voucher would almost certainly eliminate virtually all of the backlog, and a good many complaints about the ineffective care bordering on malfeasance of medical practice, almost completely. But it would also make about half the employees at VA Health administration redundant or just eliminate any justification for their position at all.
And that is why the civil service unions are up and screaming, which stopped the consideration in the Senate of the bill calling for the Director of Veterans Benefits Administration to have some discretionary power to fire ineffective or incompetent managers, or those who actively engaged in unauthorized activity.
The Current Occupant is even more beholden to the union representatives than the Senate majority, else a simple phone call to Harry Reid would have been enough to pass this enabling legislation so the Director of the VBA could have the authority he needs. So nobody in the White Hut does the right thing.
“I’m not letting Shinseki off the hook so easily. “
I am with you. When you “raid the whorehouse you take the piano player too.” Shitstiki is a worthless old man who, in five years has done nothing perceptible about this long-festering problem. Like McLame, I don’t give a $hit what he did in the military, he’s an abject failure in his current role and needs to be gone immediately.
A couple of days ago a federal nurses union rep. talked to a radio host saying the whole problem could be solved if they would just hire more federal employees and get more money.
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