Posted on 08/31/2015 8:25:07 AM PDT by xzins
Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson told the Dave Ramsey show on Wednesday that the Department of Veterans Affairs should be folded into the Department of Defense and VA facilities should only be used for specialized care like traumatic brain injuries and limb replacement procedures.
“The size of government has to be reduced significantly. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re doing that doesn’t make any sense. We have a Department of Veterans Affairs. We don’t need a Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs should be in under the Department of Defense, and it should be smooth transition,” said Carson.
The Republican presidential candidate said the U.S. should also examine how it cares for soldiers and that they should be in a support system immediately when they enlist, especially when they go into combat.
“We need to be looking at the way that we take care of soldiers. You know 14 percent down recruitment for our voluntary Army right now. Why? Because they’re looking at what we’re doing to our veterans,” he said.
“When a person applies to the military, they should be in a support system immediately from day one, particularly when they go through combat, because that’s when all the trauma is occurring, and we should have people in place a year before their time of discharge to be working on their integration back into society,” Carson added.
“There shouldn’t be a period of unemployment when they come out of the military, and they should have a health savings account, which allows them to go to any medical facility in the country, and we should be delighted to take care of them,” he said.
“We should use the VA facilities for specialized care for traumatic brain injury, limb replacements, and research,” Carson added.
I have no problem with vouchers. I also have no problem with certain VA hospitals specializing in combat injuries unique to the military.
But I don’t want DOD in charge of the budget or in charge of arguing for the budget.
It is not possible to have a laser focus on winning wars if you are required by law to focus elsewhere.
...
You’re making this into something it isn’t. The VA would be a department within the DOD with much less work to do. I see no way that it would be their major focus.
exactly
Veterans should be issued a veterans health insurance card and be allowed to go to any hospital that takes medicare medicaid. The VA system could then be absorbed into other entities or become PTSD wards or something
This is purely anecdotal but my wife worked with a woman who's husband was a surgeon, in the Navy, who worked at the Portsmouth VA Hospital, I think it's Called a Naval Medical Center now, but she said that according to her husband half the Dr's at the hospital were some of the finest most caring physicians and surgeons he's ever known and about half were pond scum who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near our Vets and service members and their families.
I agree with you, and to my way of thinking, each and every injured veteran should be automatically enrolled in the very same gold plated health care program that our elected officials in the Congress are provided with, and they should receive priority in urgent medical care under any and ALL conditions.
Same goes for education and GI bill. My son had to get a form completed in St. Louis and then he had to take it to Columbia, Missouri. The VA person told him the office in Colombia could not take a FAX. There was another form that he had to get completed in STL, then he could scan and email to MIZZOU. Apparently the VA does not know how to scan and email, but the office in Colombia can receive emails with pdfs. He knows veterans not taking benefits because of the hassle!!
That's the argument, moonman. It would NOT be their focus. It SHOULD NOT be their focus. They should be focused completely on winning wars, and using every dime they can get their hands on to win wars.
That's why the VA needs to be a separate entity arguing for and spending its own money.
Vouchers, speciality hospitals, etc., those are all things that the VA could be doing regardless.
I heard the same...
I had some fine doctors in my many years on active duty in the military medical system. Some of them weren’t.
In our town, I wouldn’t go to about half of the doctors.
As ‘Dear Abby’ said once in one of her columns, “half the doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class.”
Fortunately the CSO was able to track down an address for me.
From what I've read the biggest problem with the VA system is in administration and not really medicine. And I believe that's the problem with all government bureaucracies. The best and brightest don't graduate college hoping to find a government sinecure somewhere. they want to make their mark out in the world. It's the marginal, or worse, performer who sets his sights on a government job and most of them would Never make it in the real world. Yep...that's true.
I am former military, and I say the idea has some merit. The military requires a number of auxilary roles to fulfill its overall mission of winning wars. Roles like supply clerks, storekeepers, barbers, weathermen, numerous types of construction fields, musicians, and above all corpsmen!
The military is filled with numerous people to support the medical needs of its soldier, sailors and airmen. Primarily, they're for battlefield injuries, but they're also used for both in- and out-processing, as well as the day-to-day needs of non-battle healthcare needs.
The military also dabbles in providing housing and/or benefits, both off and on-base where situations allow. It would not be a big leap for them to extend this to disabled veterans.
In short, there is plenty of precedent for a VA-style healthcare system to remain under the DoD, rather than be a separate entity. If veterans feel better by having their own separate entity, that's one thing. But as conservatives, we cannot preach for smaller government and not be willing to look at all areas for consolidation.
I think it’s a good idea. The VA sucks.
Yep...that's true.
From what I've read the biggest problem with the VA system is in administration and not really medicine. And I believe that's the problem with all government bureaucracies. The best and brightest don't graduate college hoping to find a government sinecure somewhere. they want to make their mark out in the world. It's the marginal, or worse, performer who sets his sights on a government job and most of them would Never make it in the real world.
I got news for you, the military is focused on the big picture. That certainly includes weaponry and training, but there are a large number of support services that stand behind the personnel on the ground. I see no reason that the SecDef couldn't just as easily argue to get funds for both.
Ben Carson - gun grabber and now anti-vet.
Just keeps getting better and better...
Really? A veterans-only analogue of the British NHS was never a good idea, and reforming it will be no more beneficial than Cameron’s reforms to the NHS are likely to be (meaning not very).
Giving our veterans really good health insurance tenable at any medical facility in the U.S. and access to specialized services dealing with the physical and mental disorders which are the result of combat (plus survivor guilt in the case of vets who for some reason didn’t see combat when others in the service they knew were killed or maimed) makes more sense. It doesn’t need a cabinet-level department, and the provision of those specialized services could reasonably be provided by an arm of DoD since they are also needed by soldiers (and marines and sailors and airmen) still in the service.
It’s not injuring vets—it’s getting them into better, mainstream healthcare.
He says that they should maintain provision of specialized care, but for most stuff vets are better off mainstreamed—not only in healthcare, but in life.
If government-provided is better for vets, it’s better for everyone—and we should have communism.
But it’s not.
It’s not injuring vets—it’s getting them into better, mainstream healthcare.
He says that they should maintain provision of specialized care, but for most stuff vets are better off mainstreamed—not only in healthcare, but in life.
If government-provided is better for vets, it’s better for everyone—and we should have communism.
But it’s not.
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