Shinseki fired!
IMMEDIATE ACTION WAS TAKEN!!!
Now nothing will change. Wingnuthead is already blaming bush.
Hale has a viable solution. Money quote:
3. Fixing the VA is easy and it will never happen.
â—¾Eliminate the VA. Close all their hospitals, clinics, and administrative offices.
â—¾Transfer their funding to the DoD.
â—¾Give DoD the mission to care for their vets, when care is warranted.
â—¾Issue vets who have service connected disabilities an insurance card with a zero deductible.
â—¾Issue all other vets a card that says, “Thank you for your service, you are on your own now.â€
I would change the last line to read
â—¾Issue all other vets an insurance card with a reasonable deductible.
Otherwise, he’s a vet and I’m not, so he may be better suited to judge what is best. In any event the bullshit will now begin flying, and nothing meaningful will get done.
Actually the system you describe is in large part what’s in place.
Vets who have current acute injuries (i.e., Iraqi/Afghanistan vets) are being covered fairly well. For the acute, anyway. Aftercare not so much; they have to be ridiculously diligent about it.
Being very diligent about getting any care is what veteran care is all about, as in persistent nagging phone calls, going down there and spending time getting in people’s faces, etc.
If you are a long time vet not so easy and if you are acutely ill too damn bad for you. I know a guy who has not been the same mentally since his Vietnam days and has spent a lot of time in Veteran hospitals and having treatment. He was able to self-sustain for a while and now really could use some attention, pjysical and mental; when he called in he was told he wasn’t eligible for anything and they would not see him. Period. If he had persisted, gone down there, written his congressman, etc., might have bucked it but he just went away. He’s untreated and messed up and sliding downhill. Long waiting lists, being told no available appointments, etc., that’s how they roll at the VA.
OTOH my father, who served in Korea, gets all his meds from the VA and seems to be doing fine. They may also be keeping a closer eye on him because he was at Camp Lejeune at the beginning of the water contamination problem … he did have very early prostate cancer but that’s it so far. My father has also been retired for a long time and has all day long to go down to the VA and be up in their grill.
Firing Shinseki solved nothing. The VA system is corrupt and broken down, underfunded, understaffed, and the staff they do have scrapes the bottom of the medical barrel. Working at VA facilities is the last refuge of the afflicted, the alcoholic, the drug-ridden, the medico who went to a third-world medical school or who has been disciplined. In some situations they don’t even have to have current licenses or any licenses at all.
What funding the VA does get is skewed routinely in favor of paying “retention bonuses” and the like to the big brass. This has caused an infuriated Congress to cut money that goes to the VA, only exacerbating the problem. But Congress was also made aware of the overwhelming amount of money it would take to fund veteran care properly to begin with and they have consistently underfunded for many years. So it started bad and got worse.
Mostly they’re waiting for all these people to die, I do believe.
Jenny
I tend to trust hale’s judgement in that he is deeply involved on a personal level. On an individual level, they do some good things- they looked after my uncle Calvin- but he knew people there. Hale is talking about shutting the whole deal down and handing out BC/BS cards. And that is what ought to happen. So if your dad or my uncle or whomever needs to go to Mt Sinai, or Mayo, he goes in, pulls out his card, and gets the best treatment we as a nation can afford. And I’m with hale. In no way has the government any business being involved in medical care; everything they touch turns to shit, and this is proof.
Thanks for noticing. The VA should not be run by and for veterans. As a group, vets are no better at deciding what is best than anyone else. Taxpayers have a right to expect their money is being well spent and that the level of support they are providing is appropriate.
The “good” the VA does is exactly the same benefit your hometown doctors can do at a lower cost and with greater accountability.
And the military already has such a system called tricare. They could just hand out insurance cards tomorrow and be done withit.
As a Navy Vet, I’ve been saying the same thing as the Prof for years. But it won’t happen, at least under this Admin. Why? What do you think was a model for Obamacare? So you shut them down and give Vets Insurance Cards. Who pays the tab? Tricare costs an arm and a leg already. So if we go to the Insurance Card system, keep this in mind. If you make it CHEAP, then every Welfare Cheating Scumbag will be DEMANDING the exact same thing. If you make it match the Civilian World, most Vets couldn’t afford it, so they will HAVE to go to Obamacare. So then we give Free/Cheap Insurance to the Bottom 20/30/40% of the Economic Run, where a lot of Vets are stuck. But then Big Insurance will try to keep up their Profit Margin by raising rates on you and me and everyone else who still is working. But there won’t be enough people to support it, like what is really happening with Obamacare. So they charge even more. And don’t forget, we have to pick up the Tab for Medicare/Medicaid/ Social Security Disability also. BTW, did you know as it is right now, the Health and Human Services Dept. has a budget of over a TRILLION Dollars today, which is TWICE that of the Department of Defense?
So, to keep their Bread and Circus Schemes going, the Gooberment will just declare that EVERYONE who makes less than $______ (number to be determined later), will get on a National Health Care Plan like England has, and we’re back to the VA Medical System, except 95% of Americans will be on it (Billionaires need not play).
I’m not saying that the VA Medical doesn’t need a Good Housecleaning. And we could probably put half of the Vets on some sort of CHEAP Insurance Plan. But just be prepared for all of those Members of the Free Cheese Crowd and their Political Masters to start whinging “Why do those Baby Killers get Free Medical? What about ME!?” ‘Cause you know it’ll happen.
Just goes to prove that turd polishing is an exercise in futility, however fancy the office that comes with the job is.
And, Congress will never reform the VA because who can put a price on Congress’ efforts to maintain their Freedom to Safeguard their being seen to be Doing Things? Being electorally responsible for the cost of veteran post-service medical treatment would certainly put a damper on the debate about the next War On XXXXXX, wouldn’t it? Thus, the VA Turd Polishing will continue.
On the up side (as it were), at least Shinseki is well qualified for his tour under the Obama Bus.