Gov't. tryin' to screw veterans outta health care... Veterans Groups Criticize Secret Proposal to End VA Healthcare Apr 02, 2016 | Several of the largest veterans' service organizations in the US are criticizing a proposal drafted in secret to shut down veterans' hospitals and clinics across the country and turn over veterans health care to the private sector.
Except for mental health care all the other conditions and situations could be done in the public sector so do this place every wounded veteran in any ACA Platinum Health Care plan they like the government covering the civilian costs of them, co-pays would be on the veteran. Then later they go on Medicare like everyone else but one could add a VA Advantage Plan covering the extra costs and do some other things to help with costs. Focus VA services to mental health care and veterans elderly care homes etc.
Those two could be done within the existing public healthcare system as well. It would have the added benefit of having more accessible services where the veteran lives. Where I live, you have to drive over an hour each way to the closest medical centers. Two plus hours on the road for each trip could discourage people seeking that mental health assistance or make it harder for the elderly spouse to visit their loved one in a nursing home.
I don't care what one thinks of the VA or how its problems should be addressed or fixed. The seven Commissioners who participated in secret without the knowledge of the other Commissioners should be ousted from the Commission, period, no questions asked. They have corrupted the process and worse they have dishonored Veterans who served their country whether in non-combat roles or in combat roles were they have put their very lives on the line. Beyond shameful are they.
` ` My opinion is based on anecdotal information. I know four people who work for the VA, in various parts of the US. All are management. None of them have anything good to say about it. As I hear it, it is so hopelessly corrupt that nothing short of ending it, or firing everybody and starting all over, will fix it.
With all due respect and your 'anecdotal' info aside, four people within the VA is hardly representative of the organization as a whole. I don't claim to know exactly what the solution is, but I don't believe 'ending it' is. Start with an independent audit of the entire organization, and identify what departments within are most needed of an 'overhaul'. Suddenly 'ending' the VA, no matter the level of care or other benefits available to Veterans is far too drastic a measure as far as I'm concerned and will adversely effect Veterans overall.
` With all due respect, like I said, that was my OPINION. Maybe I should have stressed that harder. Your reaction is alarmingly defensive....as if that was your job here...or something. You might want to avail yourself to a tool called; Google. Type in two words exactly like this - "VA" corrupt - There is no shortage of reports, studies and news about the corruption of the VA. Aside from the medical professionals, it is a monument to how screwed up a program can be run. Realistically, it's a money pit. It needs to be cleaned up. As I see it, congressional mandates made on the VA over the years, or should I say decades, have deliberately driven it to the ground so it could be taken over by corporate interests. Call it government sanctioned corruption. They are doing the same thing to the US Postal Service. However, as you can plainly notice, neither side of congress ever called for a complete overhaul of the VA.
Before we go down this road, we need to talk to veterans themselves. Public hearings focusing on what veterans have to say about this issue. What we don't need is one more privatization scam rammed through without public discussion.
Yes I get that it was 'your OPINION', my reading comprehension is just fine thank you. If my reaction was meant to be 'alarmingly defensive' one would think my reply would have been fraught with all caps as in 'OPINION'. That said, we can discuss the validity of online articles claiming so-called corruption within the VA from Google searches when you are ready willing and able to provide us with the links to those. That said, I have made my thoughts clear as to believing that an independent audit is in order. That would be as in independent of the government. As a USAF Veteran who served during the 'Vietnam era', call me defensive if you will, I call it being passionate about Veterans issues, including those that involve the VA.
` I apologize for my attitude. I too, care about how are Vets are being treated and would rather it stay, a federal program. Let me restate my position; congress forced the VA to swallow a poison pill, so to speak, that would corrupt it. As I see it, decades of mismanagement have doomed it.
