Posted on 02/29/2020 6:23:58 PM PST by Cyclops08
The United States would not be able to care for its millions of veterans if it becomes a socialist country, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) secretary cautioned Breitbart News at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday.
Asked to make the case against socialism during an edition of Breitbart News Saturday, airing on SiriusXM 125, at the 2020 CPAC event, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie warned host and Washington Political Editor Matthew Boyle:
“If America were suddenly to descend into a socialists State, that promise Lincoln made 150 years ago is wiped out. There’s no longer any care for veterans. … An incredibly high percentage of our warriors are with missing limbs.”
Under President Donald Trump, the VA is providing care for those veterans with special needs, Wilkie said.
“If socialism became the coin of the realm, that would be gone,” Wilkie stressed. “That would be gone, and that place that was promised for warriors would disappear. So that is my great concern as the person who is very fortunate and honored to be the head of America’s second-largest department. Only DOD is bigger. We care for nine and a half million veterans over 170 hospitals. That care would disappear.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
We veterans will defend America against socialism again if necessary. We all took a vow, for which I will gladly take up arms again.
Veterans should get insurance paid for by the government such as Tricare or Medicare so the veteran can go anywhere he she wants to for healthcare whether it’s the VA or a non-va provider
Old boy McCain immediately comes to mind since he had worn the US Flag as a prop while pretending to be a war hero, yet his voting records show him cutting benefits to vets at every chance.
All the funding for the VA would go to every mongrel non-citizen, and would cause a lot of veterans, “ possibly to go hunting”!
I agree entirely. Veterans should get the very best health care, wherever that may be for the specific health issue they have.
I have seen some good health care at VA hospitals, and health care that is beyond bad.
If we had single-payer healthcare, the veterans would be expected to use the same services as everyone else.
VA healthcare is a disgrace. But not in every case. I will give them credit. I had many dealings with the MHICM(pronounced MICAM) program when handling someone’s VA money. They were pretty incredible. They certainly helped me in a number of ways while dealing with a schizo person
Generally yes, despite the fact that it's actually somewhat better now than it has been. It's a sin that veterans have had to deal with this system.
I go to the VA for my healthcare, but I think there is a program like you described. My cousin recently had a prostate procedure in a regular facility, not a VA facility.
mainland chinese revere their korean war veterans as heroes. i would be surprised if they don’t get good medical care (since their everyday needs seem to be met by the state).
The problem in these arrangements is that the entire socialist structure erodes the quality of anything provided “by the state”. The pensioners of the USSR system ended up getting regular payments in worthless rubles, Cubans get universal healthcare with little supplies (and little of anything else), and Red Chinese serfs can deal with horrible sanitary/environmental conditions.
It just doesn’t work.
“Care for veterans” is just one of a million things that would disappear in a socialist country - after the jobs, private homes, private automobiles, etc.; young people today in NJ/NY are already getting a taste of what socialism will offer, and they are fleeing in droves. The costs make it impossible to make a go of it here; there is little opportunity, and no employers want to step in and get raped by the Big Gubmint tax-and-spenders.
What we call “high-cost areas” in this country, those who decried the new tax law’s limits in state and local tax deductions, are those areas where socialism has already been tried and failed - with the same results that would occur nationally. Taxes skyrocket, the government worker caste laughs all the way to the bank, employers and high earners leave (and aren’t replaced), and in the long run all the promised benefits collapse - they are unaffordable. The infrastructure crumbles due to lack of maintenance funds, and they’ve “taxed the rich, fed the poor, ‘til there are no rich no more”.
The drive of the Dems to nationalize the socialism is simply to destroy the greener pastures to which the companies and working people have fled from NY/NJ, CA, and IL; if they can’t flee to better business environments, the hope is they’ll just stay and pony up the money.
“Veterans should get the very best health care, wherever that may be for the specific health issue they have.”
I fully agree, however the VA health care should extend only to those specific health issues that were caused by a veterans service.
If a vet had received shrapnel wounds in his leg during service, the VA should be obligated to do what ever is necessary to take care of the injury for as long as the veteran lives. If a veteran breaks a leg skiing, that should be of no concern to the VA since the injury was not related to service.
I believe that the VA health care should be limited only to conditions or injuries which resulted from military service.
yes, that is called “choice’...
The VA provider has to place a consult to the VA “community Care” Dept of the VA. These VA employees in that dept then review the referral for outside the VA care and MAY approve it.
Then the patient goes to the community Provider that he is referred to ( and who has agreed to and accepts VA Reimbursement ). the VA pays for the care.
It is an exceedingly cumbersome Beaurocratic process!
what I was suggesting would be ALL veterans receive Paid Health insurance ( for example, medicare) and then go to any provider that accepts it...It would work the same as Tricare...except would be available for every veteran.
The VA would probably not last long then.
I see no problem there at all....
Of course the medical community would then need to expand Veteran specific programs, ie for Combat PTSD
You are absolutely correct.
Its called the Free Market and Supply and demand...Much of the VA system would disappear.
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