Fix for the VA? Let 'em out!
 

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...ty-health-care

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, posted a summary of his bill Sunday and said it would be introduced this week.

The bill would allow veterans facing long delays to seek care outside the VA, at private doctors’ offices, military bases or community health centers. It also authorizes emergency funding to hire new doctors and nurses and would provide scholarships or forgive college loans for doctors and nurses who go to work at the VA. In addition, it would give the department authority to fire poor-performing executives, but not as broadly as a bill passed in the House and defeated in the Senate last month.

So...what you want is Medicare for vets. Well...well...whell. It's convoluted Medicare of course, because the last thing we want is for anybody but the geezers to get Medicare. You're probably not all that thrilled that us geezers get it. Of course it's another politically motivated half-assed fix for the screwed up military sector of our screwed up health care system.

One more time...universal medicare for everybody. Geezers to infants...and for all stateside military personnel.

Such a logically simple solution yet they somehow can't seem to grasp the concept.:rolleyes:

Of course the Pentagon would be blowing an aneurysm if there was a hint that a non-VA doc would have the last word over stop-lossing some poor schmuck with both his legs blown off and his brain decimated by PTSD on his fifth deployment to Afghanistan.:rolleyes:

The VA has become overburdened with veterans seeking medical care because of the private sectors failure to provide benefits for employees. (Or deliberate avoidance.) And, then, of course there is the issue of unemployed veterans. Not that it would make much difference if they HAD a job..............See above statement.

But, Oh no; Can't blame the "job creators", it's not politically correct. Republicans get horribly offended when you do that!

My sister has two jobs now, but still must use her VA benefits for healthcare. And, she is not alone. In fact this problem is growing.

Obamacare is a lame attempt to address this issue. If we ever end up with socialized medicine, it won't be because soshialism has triumphed, it'll be because capitalism has failed us.

Have a Great Day!

Dave

Actually, based on your posts, I'd never have assumed you were a "geezer". I was thinking more like "pre-pubescent".

The elected know how to fix the problems with healthcare, just disagree on who will pay. One side say's "All need chip in", " the other side "not me the other guy needs to pay"!

There is already Tricare for the VA, does it not allow patients to go outside of the VA?



Barney

Your silly, ill-mannered insult is actually a complement. Pre-pubescents are some of the most rational people on the planet. If you want a sensible answer to something, ask a smart 10 or 11-year-old.

Alas, then the hormones kick in....

No, the other side says; "Everyone must go out and buy their own!", then bends over backwards to see that none of us can afford it.

Dave

And, by the time that 10 0r 11 year old turns fifty, he's a grouchy, cynical coot like me.

Dave

I was attempting to stay within the KISS principle for the want of having all the members understand the point!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle

Barney

Maybe this is the answer.

Good cartoon!

And you have the balls (or maybe you don't) to piss on any post put up here by TJ.

If you recall Whell Bush Jr wanted to fold the VA into the private system.

Pete

Gotch beat Dave.:D Though of course the hormones have gone south by this time.;)

Who's saying we want the VA folded into "the private system"? What's required is the folding of the VA into a universal public system.

Yeah, the privatize everything (ala Halliburton and Black Water) mantra espoused by the neocon wing of the 'pubbies. :rolleyes:

Phuck that noise.

The VA has special needs patients that require a staff with experience in battlefield injuries. So I think keep the VA is the best way to keep the skills where they are needed. Now for general medical yes but for the injuries requiring more specialized care no to going outsourced.


Barney

We have a private system? Who knew!:p

Pounding your pud again Mike? Looks like you have delusions of grandeur.:rolleyes:

I'm not buying it for a second Barney. Civilians are shot up every day. Civilians are injured in explosions every day. Civilians are injured in fixed wing aircraft and helicopter accidents every day. Civilians are ripped up by heavy manufacturing equipment and farm equipment every day. Trauma injury is trauma injury. Surgeons and speci@lists in trauma treatment abound. Medium sized and big city trauma centers see the same sorts of injuries day in and day out as seen in combat support field hospitals. Military personnel can be airlifted to civilian trauma centers for treatment just like civilians are when they have catastrophic injuries. There's no place I'd rather go with a catastrophic injury than the Level II trauma center at Mission St. Joseph's in Asheville, NC...a town with under 90,000 residents in a metropolitan area with under 500,000 residents.

But where the VA system purely sucks is in it's treatment of mental health problems, particularly single incident trauma (critical incident debriefing treatment) and complex trauma (chronic PTSD treatment). There is tremendous pressure on VA docs to put a band-aid on somebody's forehead and approve them for re-deployment. There's probably nothing that can be done outside of civilian oversight of domestic VA locations and combat support field hospital facilities overseas. Which isn't going to happen. But the way military victims of combat related PTSD are treated in military facilities is a fucking disgrace. Civilian psychiatrists, civilian psychologists, and civilian licensed mental health professionals need to protect military personnel from the stop-loss bullshit going on at the VA and at field hospitals in deployment areas.

The wounded need sometimes long term rehab and the military does have the teams of trained and experienced experts. Prosthesis and PTSD alone would be expensive to maintain in the general public healthcare environment. The VFW and other veteran organizations seem to agree.

Plus this fact alone should be enough, it is cheaper no middleman to drive up costs! Plenty of oversight and scrutiny also.

Does the VA charger $20 for an aspirin?

Barney

One is lucky if the care isn't shit, Barney. So what I don't want for anybody I care about is lots of shit care. Or even worse, lots of cheap shit care. Universal single payer health care for everybody, including stateside military personnel. Hopefully that's where the country is headed...although probably not in my lifetime.

There's nothing we can do about combat support field hospital care...so if you're deployed, you're fucked. I don't believe the care is even that good if you're really in bad shape and they send you back to the best they have at Walter Reed. I suspect that the rampant neglect has not really been fixed. And particularly if you have PTSD, or combat fatigue, or, for the Patton fans hereabouts, you're a goddamn coward.

Shut your cunt Bana Bitch.

I gotta say, DJ, you are the best argument for the 'sovereign citizen' idea I ever saw.

Like, who'd want to be in a political unit with multiple people in it, when you consider that one of them might be you?

And you can be my 'sovereign bitch' you idiot.

I may be an idiot, but a least I'm not compulsively hostile about it.... :)

You're too much of a pussy. That's not hostile, that's the truth. Now go away old man. ;)

I've always liked pussy. If you don't like it, what do you like?

Not that there's anything wrong with that, whatever 'that' is....

When was the last time you buried your face in a juicy snatch old dude?

Awful early in the month to already be out of meds. Or did they forget to fill them again? The voices in their head forgot to remind them to pick them up.



Barney

What up you old cocksucker? Glad to see you're still alive...not. :rolleyes:

The phrase 'breakfast of champions' comes to mind.... :)

There's that cutesey winky-dink thing again.

1. I get the concept of loose moderation.
2. I'll live with it (maybe).

If -5 and DJ are allowed to run rampant, we shame ourselves by their ongoing presence.

Makes me wonder if I desire to shame myself by continuing to appear here. :(

Seems to me some occasional rousing expressions of interpersonal dismay are reasonable aspects of current events forum participation. This Jr. High schoolyard grossout stuff is just pretty silly though.

I will take this opportunity to apologize for my participation. Although I must admit, the "whorehouse wall" reference remains one of my most vivid and entertaining experiences from Marine Corp boot. "Bana!!! The better part of you...etc."

The bill also includes the construction of 26 new VA medical facilities in 18 states and uses $500 million in unobligated VA funds to hire additional VA doctors and nurses.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz344nSe574

Golly gee, it looks like I was spot on with what is wrong. Not enough facilities, not enough nurses(that 30% understaffing gets in the way of patient care) and not enough doctors. Too much political BS and not enough money from Congress, while they deliver too much political posturing. And nada for legislation.

The bill is due for the veterans. It is time to start paying, America.

Call me a skeptic but I see a foot in the backdoor ala voucherizing the VA. I hope I'm wrong. Good to see congress actually doing something but I don't trust these Republican scumbags as far as I could throw one and I have a bum rotater cuff.