The VA Hospital system and Veteran's care periodically gets pummeled. The last issue was PTS, before that Agent Orange, The I believe has been and always will be about the Money.
So usually I'm ready to jump on anything that makes the administration look bad, but there are some things about this that I don't understand. There has been a large increase in people seeking treatment at the VA, but not a large increase in funding. I get that, we don't have tons of extra money floating around. Not enough doctors, too few facilities, the care is just not there for so many extra people. Of course they're flailing.
But my question is, why are people going to the VA hospital? So you're a veteran, and you're entitled to use it. So what? I'm entitled, seven years in the military, even during war time---I would never use the VA facilities. I use my health care insurance at my job, and if I couldn't and I was unable to afford insurance, I'd get an Obama care discount, or if I was destitute, I'd use Medicaid. But why the VA, especially when they have terrible wait times, sometimes awful service (add note that some VA hospitals are awesome), and so many other people apparently need it? Maybe for people who need specialty care in trauma injuries from wartime (if they are the only agency who can provide it), I could see that. But you have tons of people who are going there for EVERYTHING. Old guys, who could be using Medicare. Now, for some reason, I think people are more aware that they could use VA facilities, and that's why they're going there. I wish they'd tell people that if you can get care elsewhere, GO!
I just read an article about a man who died after having surgery, that he desperately needed. If I remember the story right, he waited three months for the VA schedulers to call him to schedule a surgery. And then...he finally had to call them himself, and got the surgery a few weeks later. Too late, he suffered miserably and died. But who amongst us would sit around for THREE months, waiting for a phone call? We'd be calling ourselves every day, saying, "I need that surgery right now!" We wouldn't be waiting for the right person to call us. Are people really that stupid, or are they just used to terrible service?
-- Edited by busdriver11 on Tuesday 27th of May 2014 04:35:17 PM
My friend's daughter works as a MD in a VA clinic. Only sees 7 patients a day !!!! If a private or even Kaiser doctor sees 7 patients a day, that won't even pay for his part of the overhead. No wonder they have long waits.
So sad. But VA is an entitlement program, under budget constraints, and the bottom of the last choice - bottom -last resort medical care program. Don't know which Political Party is going to come out ahead on this, but the Stupid Party seems to be very quiet about this when they should be making P Capital against PBO and the D's.
