The VA hospital scandal spreads
I haven’t yet written a big post on the mess at the VA hospital system, and this won’t be that post. But the news on the VA is one of those outrages that even the left can’t quite coverup, it is so blatant.
What went on with the VA hospitals in recent years has been an escalation of the disorganization in what was already a flawed and seemingly cold-hearted system. The news taps into what most people already knew about the VA system in general and for many decades, which is that there’s been a lot to complain about. In turn, all of that undermines the left’s arguments for a government-run healthcare system.
Here’s a thread to talk about it.
In turn, all of that undermines the left’s arguments for a government-run healthcare system.
You got that right! Repubs have to harp on that, Big Time!
Imagine what is going-on on the Indian reservations!
BTW, the ramp in VA budgets is — even now — driven by the Vietnam era vets.
They’ve hit retirement — and every ailment known to man.
You’ll note that the boys on the magic lists ALL need elderly care.
So, it’s a scandal about what’s happening to Boomers and kin.
It largely reflects the fact that poverty stricken vets in retirement fall back into the VA system.
It’s not going to get any better.
Barry really IS pulling off a Cloward-Piven!
Upon its reset, the first to suffer must be Black Americans. They’re massively over represented on the roles.
Imploded systems ALWAYS ‘shed load.’ — Just ask Muscovites circa 1998.
Obama “care” will be a nightmare. It’s major feature will be euthanizing Baby Boomers.
That’s where the money is – and the Leviathan Diabolos known as our Stalinist “Liberal” Government knows where the money is and what to do with it.
I’m a vet. and we all know don’t go to the Vets.
Fuck you, you pieces of shit.
In the 44 years I’ve been a veteran I’ve had exactly two contacts with the VA.
They summoned me to an exam of a wound I’d received in Vietnam on the first anniversary of my return to the states.
The second was about two years later when I was having some issues with what is now known as PTSD. The bureaucratic hurdles they threw in my path at that point were such that I decided to resolve it myself.
I’m not a big fan of the VA.
Isn’t it wonderful that the messiah is so outraged that a guy who is set to retire is the scapegoat?
A few VA Health facts:
-$56 billion most recent yr (40% of total Dept. Vet. budget).
-serves less than 30% of ~24million total vets
-152 total hospitals (mean 3/state)
– the VA Med Ctrs are contractually affiliated with academic medical centers (e.g. the Durham NC VA is across the street from Duke Univ Med Ctr), a serious revenue line item for the academics.
-most medical care at these VA Med Ctrs is provided by young doctors in training (partially trained, not board-certified, loosely supervised at best, often winging it, without a care as to cost issues). Errors and complications are regretted.
-it used to be that in-patients could get a two-week Leave of Absence (well enough to be home) but bed would be counted for capitation payment from VA Central Office as “occupied”. Maybe still that way.
Thanks to the Dems and SCOTUS, we are all vets now.
I may be behind the curve a bit, so maybe everybody here has seen it already. But on Fox News today, I saw what I thought was a preliminary attempt to test a Blame Bush effort.
It went something like, “There were statements from those in the White House that they were notified as earlier as the 2008 transition that problems like this were happening…”
Which seemed to me like a set up.
A friend of ours was anurse at the VA thirty years ago. She complained bitterly about the old out of touch doctor who ran her department. Sounds like things haven’t changed.
Remember, when you pay the doctor you’re a patient. When the government pays the doctor you’re a cost center.
I joined the Marines when I was 17, so I’ve had a bird’s-eye view into gov’t health care for a long time, and was appalled to discover that with such empirical experiences such as the VA, the Indian reservations …Canada, England, of course, Michael Moore’s favorite, Cuba, the post office, the DMV etc., etc.,…people would STILL consider “government health care”??!! Barnum had it right, there’s a sucker born every minute. And that sucker is a true parasite.
As a beneficiary, I do think it is important to extend appreciation to the dedicated doctors and nurses, while acknowledging the incompetence and corruption of the bureaucrats.
What happened to all those Democrat operatives that told us Bush was wasting lives because competent generals, like SHinseki, told us we needed more troops (for the meatgrinder) in Iraq?
Also, what happened to those freaks of nature, the Righteous Hammers of Justice or whatever the hell they call themselves in their cult, that were telling us that canada, cuba, and britain and the US military all had great state healthcare?
There’s more information on this matter from a different perspective.
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2014/05/a-three-step-plan-to-begin-eating-the-va-elephant.html
In the comments.
It would be cheaper and more effective to buy every veteran a middle of the road ACA plan.
Considering how much money the Federal and state governments have flushed down the toilet on 404Care (estimated at between $4 and 5 billion, with a ‘b’), it would have been cheaper by magnitudes for the Government to simply give every citizen $1 million to buy their own insurance (approximately $340 million, with an ‘m’).
1 dollar per citizen. 10 dollars bumps it up to a few billion.
This number was being managed and cut down via emergency room access before, so the slice of the pie was much smaller than the US’s total pop or adult pop.
Jim Sullivan Says:
That could also show Obama knew about it all along.
I do recall that there was a Walter Reed scandal in the Bush era that the media attempted to use against Bush.
A lot of the Democrats from the military ranks were Democrats because they were promised funding and power over veteran affairs, including veteran benefits and healthcare. A lot of them followed in Shinseki’s shoes. But it looks like armchair generals that talk a lot, can’t really get much done. Well, making bodybags stack to the moon, maybe, but not much else.
But, Comrade Zero is outraged, I tell you: Outraged! that this is going on! so Outraged that he’s arranged to cashier a guy whose retirement was already announced months ago!
And he didn’t know the first thing about it, until he heard it on the news, like you and me!
… Rush was talking about this yesterday: he was groping for the phrase and said we owe our veterans the responsibility to take care of them, or something like that.
But what he meant was the antique notion of the Debt of Honor. The nation’s citizens owe our veterans a debt of honor, that we’ll keep faith with them as they’ve fought for us.