Posted on 02/05/2017 11:53:07 AM PST by Kaslin
To all my fellow veterans, I'm about to tip a sacred cow here. I would ask that for the sake of our many fellow warriors who need relief ASAP, please read this with an open mind and a willingness to offer tweaks, embellishments or outright different approaches:
Many of us can agree that the Veterans Administration has done a less-than-stellar job in delivering timely, high-quality and cost-effective medical care, especially when it comes to "wait times," for veterans injured serving this great nation. However, there is one piece of good news in this situation: The American public is outraged and sincerely wants to help. This gives us a window of opportunity and leverage to achieve major changes, something historically, very difficult to do in the D.C. bureaucracy.
An intermediate solution now in place, has its own issues. In response to the public furor over Veterans' Health Care, the Obama Administration initiated the "Veterans Choice" initiative, which allows Veterans to seek service outside the VA, if there is expected to be a long wait period for internal service. A longtime friend and fellow vet wrote the following about this:
If you are considering Veterans Choice with the VA, think long and hard. I am out and here is why.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The fix is simplicity itself.
Give veterans the same health care insurance that members of congress get.
Let veterans go to whatever doctor or care facility they prefer. Eliminate all the massive overhead of veteran only hospitals and care facilities and all that massive bloated bureaucracy that goes with it.
“Give veterans the same health care insurance that members of congress get.”
Good solution, but I’m not holding my breath.
I couldn’t get any pain medication from the VA, so I went to a private clinic intending to use Tricare. Things looked good for the first two visits, but then the VA jumped in the middle, decided to cover it under the “choice” program, and suddenly that clinic refused to give me any effective treatment for pain.
I rather suspect that the VA told them they’d be black-listed if they prescribed appropriate medication.
A process at which the VA singularly sucks.
Why am I not surprised?
“Give vets same as Congress”?
How about give Vets the generous, gold label medical deal Congress has, and give Congress and ALL other Gubmint, NON-UNIFORMED military the VA?
BTW -don’t fix anything in the VA once the Gub mint folks are enrolled; just cut it by 50%-75%. Let the Gub mint have their sacred cow.
We’ll all watch it shrivel up and tip over.
Couldn’t happen to a better group of people.
I’ve been to VA hospitals in LA, Denver, and Seattle and have always been amazed at the high level of care.
Imo, VA delenda est.
No matter how well intended in its inception, it is a dysfunctional amalgam of dumba**ery, waste, fraud and abuse.
Which, now that I think about it, makes it just a standard issue federal jobs program like all the rest of the fedzilla.
AFGE will resist any sort of privatization. They fought Veteran Choice Program tooth and nail.
Don’t you love The Magic Formula they use?
40% magically becomes 3%.
Ask them why they have that formula.
They don’t have an answer.
It’s just used to lower a Veteran’s disability rating.
I also like their Magic Book.
It doesn’t even list many diseases.
And medical people don’t even make the decisions.
Some GS-5 is going to decide your disability rating.
A GS-5 with a big chip on her shoulder.
I asked for a meeting with my adjudicator.
Nope.
It’s easier for them to screw you if they don’t know you.
And try to sue them.
You have to use a lawyer approved by them.
My state has one, that’s right one, VA approved lawyer.
The VA bureaucrats are organized crime.
I am required to see my VA Doctor for a yearly visit.
The last three times, I checked in and was then forgotten.
This meant I had a whopping five minutes with the Doctor at the end of the day when he was tired and angry.
I’ve never understood why Vets have to travel sometimes long distances to get their health needs covered. Why can they not just receive a card that covers their health care needs that they can take to their own local doctor or hospital? Not having to keep up an enormous bureaucracy means that much more money for Vets’ care.
Those doctors and nurses working in the VA hospitals can then work in the hospitals or doctors offices that will need more staff to care for the vets locally.
That makes the most sense that’s why it will never happen.
VA care should be an insurance card. Let the vet go wherever he/she wants to.
Each vet who is less than 100% disabled is not entitled to comprehensive care. The care must be related to the injuries sustained while serving. The digital card can specify what care the vet is entitled to.
The vast and expensive network of VA clinics and hospitals can be closed and integrated into existing military medical facilities to ascertain disability eligibility and any specialized care such as PTSD and spinal cord injuries.
“I’ve been to VA hospitals in LA, Denver, and Seattle and have always been amazed at the high level of care.”
Then you need to “broaden your contacts with VA facilities” because the VA sucks in most places. And I am just wondering why you would not want the VA hospitals privatized anyway when surely you’ve read about their disgraceful, murderous behavior?
It probably all comes down to the local management. Here in San Diego County I, and several of my friends, have experienced excellent care with the VA.
“Each vet who is less than 100% disabled is not entitled to comprehensive care. “
And why not? They’ve earned taxpayer-provided healthcare for life for giving what they have to the rest of us. A “real caring country” would have made the complete care for veterans a number one priority decades ago. And FWIW, my father, a WWII Navy Vet, was cared for at the Palo Alto, California VA Hospital by doctors from neighboring Stanford Hospital when he was dying from terminal bone cancer which was definitely not service-connected. He never got a bill for any of it, so I am wondering about your comment that non-service connected illnesses are not covered.
Let the Vets go to any Doctor and get their medication at any Pharmacy...get rid of the overhead and problems......The VA does not need to be in competition with private business..
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