Report: Wait Lists for Veterans Even Longer Today than Last Year

AP, via Military Times ^ | June 22, 2015 | AP

[Timber Rattler]

The number of veterans seeking health care but ending up on waiting lists of one month or more is 50 percent higher now than it was a year ago when a scandal over false records and long wait times wracked the Department of Veterans Affairs, The New York Times reported. The VA also faces a budget shortfall of nearly $3 billion, the Times reported in a story posted online ahead of its Sunday editions. The agency is considering furloughs, hiring freezes and other significant moves to reduce the gap, the newspaper reported.

(snip)

The Times also reported intense internal debate at the VA over a proposal to address a shortage of funds for a new, more effective but more costly hepatitis C treatment by possibly rationing new treatments among veterans. Certain patients who have advanced terminal diseases or suffer from a "persistent vegetative state or advanced dementia" would be excluded under that plan, the paper reported.

Agency officials expect to petition Congress this week to allow them to shift money into programs running short of cash, according to the newspaper. However, lawmakers may object to removing funds from a new program intended to allow certain veterans on waiting lists and in rural areas to choose taxpayer-paid care from private doctors outside the department's health system, the Times reported.

[Timber Rattler]

Foreshadowing of the end result for Obamacare.

[Jane Long]

Didn't I just recently read where The Mooch got to move to the front of the line, for her *alterations*, at Walter Reed?

Didn't I also recently read that Congress gave themselves a raise while overlooking pay increases for the troops?

#NoBarryCades for the DC elites....

Disgusting.

[paratrooper82]

Once again! This time put some stink on it! NOTHING will ever change in the VA or this government until you first get the Union thugs out of it!

No matter what reforms you attempt to put in place, so long as the Unions come first, nothing will change.

The public sector unions will destroy this great Nation, just like the Unions destroyed, e.g. GM, Chrysler, Detroit, etc. So long as the Unions high wages, pension funds, and golden medical care comes before the fighting men and women of this Nation, nothing in the VA will change.

How many VA employees (Union Members) have been fired?

. . . . . . crickets . . . . . . . . .

Case closed!

[The Sons of Liberty]

Report: Wait Lists for Veterans Even Longer Today than Last Year

When I was serving, we had a saying:

"Nothing is too good for our fighting men, and NOTHING is what they get"

0bama wants to see that this remains absolutely true, because from day one, he has declared that "Veterans are Terrorists". They terrorize him, because they are sworn to uphold The Constitution, and he knows that they pose the biggest threat to his dictatorship.

[Iron Munro]

At least we know that Barack Obama has the finest health care available anywhere.

Is there any wonder why so many other illegals are flooding into America?

[hal ogen]

The VA continues murdering Veterans through neglect. Nothing is done to the responsible employees; however, the grounds are well-kept and the furniture in the executive offices is new.

[oh8eleven]

I've used the VA three times in 45 years ...

• 1972 - VA mortgage
• 1981 - Agent Orange physical exam
• 2000 - Test for Hepatitis A

Had to return in early 2015 for help with (service connected) tinnitus and despite my three previous experiences, they had no DD214 on file for me. I provided a new copy.
Required to take a physical and hearing test before they will discuss tinnitus. Both appointments took three weeks.
Most of the staff were nice - although the audiologist was a miserable b*tch. Neither she nor the tinnitus specialist knew anything about the device I was looking for - the Neuromonics Oasis.
Very odd since Neuromonics claims the VA is the only place in NY State to obtain it - which is why I went to the VA to begin with!
Went to the service center to question why I was in Priority Group 8 and not Group 6 (VN Vet). They said they had no copy of my DD214 - even though I gave them one just a week earlier.
If the device I'm looking for was available anywhere else - I'd tell the VA to go piss up a rope.

[onedoug]

‘Saw a guy with a VV hat on last week and, is my wont, I asked the usual stuff about unit, what part of the country, etc.

When I told him I’d seen lots of combat but came out without a scratch, he proceeds to tell me how I should be bilking the system, and be like him as he gets $3000/mo for sitting on his ass all month.

When I told him I didn’t feel I was owed anything he tells me I’ve obviously got PTSD and should be taking the government for all they’re worth.

Next time I see a fellow Vietnam vet, I think I’m just going to pass him by.

[oh8eleven]

he proceeds to tell me how I should be bilking the system
You're not alone. I've had tinnitus for 12-15 years, but always very mild.
Everytime I go to a reunion of my VN artillery battery, half the guys are talking about how much they get for PTSD, hearing problems, etc., and trying to get me to sign up. Screw that.

[Amagi]

But no wait at all for Obama’s disease-ridden, vermin-infested illegal alien Democrat voting criminals for whatever the public trough offers.

[onedoug]

I had tinnitus which I always related to gunfire, explosions...nasty firefights. But it suddenly stopped ringing about a year and a half or so ago. Maybe it’s just getting old, but I’m happy.

Thanks for your service. And “Welcome Home”, if I hadn’t already said it. (Memory problems too. Ha-ha.)

[oh8eleven]

Thanks for your service. And “Welcome Home”
Back at ya' brother. Glad your T went away. Mine's become a MFer.

[Foolsgold]

Being enrolled in the VA system Exempts you from DeBummercare.