VA

HughB · May 29, 2014

Been listening to the news about the VA. Dealt with the VA for the last 35 years. My father before me. He was WW1. When I see the finger pointing on TV I just shake my head. This has been going on for years. When they try to make P------l hay out of this shame on them.
What would it take to make the VA a viable operation?
Any ideas? Sold my 8n.

Mike (WA) · May 29, 2014

Just chuck it and give the vets a "get in free" card to use at conventional health care facilities. Back when the rest of the populace paid their own way, there may have been a need for it- but now, with half the country either on Medicare or Medicaid, might as well add the vets to the mix and get rid of that bureaucratic nightmare.

Tom in TN · May 29, 2014

hughb,

I don't have any opinion or ideas about how to improve the VA.

I served one enlistment in the Navy back in the early/mid 60s. I haven't had any involvement with the military since the day of my separation from active duty.

A good friend of mine is a retired Senior Chief. He has for a long time tried to get me to "sign-up" at the local VA hospital for benefits. I wouldn't insult him for the world, but in my mind, I keep thinking, "No thanks. Too many stories about abuse in the VA facilities".

I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing.

Tom in TN

DeltaRed · May 29, 2014

That's the best idea I've heard in a while!

1130Leo · May 29, 2014

Just like everything else the government sticks their nose in, it does not work. I agree the VA has had Major problems for Many years, best bet would be to shut it down and allow the vets to use any doctor they want, kind of like what we were promised before they passed the new mess that one could keep their doctor if they liked them....

Tim Barnes · May 29, 2014

What would it take to make the VA a viable operation?
My opinion is, to make the VA work make all the Washington crowd use the VA from the President down to the personnel that clean the floors. I served in Viet Nam, used the VA for a few years and finally gave up on them for several reasons. One, my wife's insurance covers me fully. Two, since I have private insurance, I figured I should use it and let another veteran take my place. Three, I got tired of dealing with VA Drs. that either didn't speak English very well or were there for the bankers hours they kept. I first went to the VA in the 70's and was well satisfied with the care I received. Around the early 80's I noticed that things were changing and moved to the private sector. I hope I don't ever have to go back to depending on the VA hospitals. HughB, sorry to hear you sold your 8N, I still have my '57 Ford 600.

Hay hay hay · May 29, 2014

Fresh thinking. No need for so many many VA hospitals (and building more) when good care is available locally. Give the deserving vets a medical card. As I understand it, vets are entitled to differeent levels of care based upon their level of service, and if the medical need was service/combat related. As it should be.

New ideas like this is how to bust up long standing bureaucracies....don't expect it to come from Washington. The citizens need to demand it. Wish folks would push fresh ideas like this instead of just always being against everything.

Fergienewbee · May 29, 2014

I have never had to deal with VA but it seems they are more interested in denying than helping. Look at all the problems with "agent orange" and how they denied any problems stemmed from exposure years earlier. Similar to the problems first responders are having after exposure after/during 9-11 operations. Give them all a voucher and let them get the treatment they deserve. Government health care at its best doesn't work. Too many bureaucrats making decisions rather than doctors. Someone needs to go to jail on this one--maybe several someones.

Larry

Cas · May 29, 2014

I worked for the VA for 9 months in 1973, It was the same then as now. Nothing has changed, I do not know why they are getting so much publicity now. On a good day I finished my work in two or three hours.
Had a chance get around the hospital everyday. Many employees did not seem to work too hard. But, in fairnes there were a few that did ten hours of work in eight hours.
Medicine, was on the job training. Back then you did not need much of a degree to get hired. As soon as Doctors felt competent, they left to set up their own private practice.
The idea of letting veterans seek care out of the system was tried in the VA in the 1990s at the one I was employed at. It worked good until they eliminated it a few years later.
The VA is probably the world's biggest healthcare system. It is administered by a bunch. of bureaucrats both nnalert and nnalert. Fixing it would be like raising the Titanic and putting it in working condition.
It was the easiest job I ever had and the benefits and salary were great. But, I wanted to farm full time. So, I am greatful to the VA for showing me an operation where most of the employees look forward to holidays and vacations.

loko17 · May 29, 2014

As long as we have government people administering this program, it will continue to be a mess. I watched a video clip where our so called "commander in chief" made the comment that these people (our military men and women) volunteered for this job so he thought that they should be paying toward the cost of their "medical insurance". Our fighting men and women should be getting the best possible medical care that is available as soon as possible. Perhaps if we stopped giving trillions of dollars in foreign aid to countries all over the world who hate our guts and take care of our own, this would be a much better country.

LAA · May 29, 2014

There should be no surprise whatsoever when government run anything fails or is a complete cluster, it would be surprising if anything any branch of government did actually worked. There will be plenty of people in the same boat or worse when zerocare is in full throttle.

Billy Shafer · May 29, 2014

Fire every VA worker there is. Then start over with people that really want a job. Tell them work or get fired your choice.

I have been dealing with the VA since 1973. Called about an Agent Orange exam I had for June. Not only is my appointment gone. So are my medical records. Gave them my VA case number. I was told there is no file under that number.

JRSutton · May 29, 2014

The biggest surprise with this whole VA scandal is that anybody IS surprised.

Gee... a massive government run bureaucracy funded with billions of tax dollars....

... and it ISN'T being run efficiently????

I still slap my forehead whenever I hear anybody talk about making such as system work.

It cannot.

Provide low cost health insurance for our soldiers. They can buy into it, the price based on their service. Purple heart recipients being on the free end of the spectrum.

Done.

Ellis Kinney · May 29, 2014

I thought about signing up at the VA in the early 70's. My father in law who was a WW II vet advised me not to bother. He told me a few of his problems and I stayed away. The president should have to use the VA and not go to the front of the line. PERIOD. Ellis.

John Fulton · May 29, 2014

It takes me 6+ months to get an appointment with my cardiologist. When I went to local hospital with chest pains, it took 7 months to get appointment to have catherization. It takes at least 6 months to get appointment with my ophthalmologist. Above are all civilian doctors, I have never signed up with VA. Just saying!!!

Hay hay hay · May 29, 2014

Yep. Somehow rational, logical, thinking people can overlook or ignore those kind of facts and the fact that our old healthcare system costs were twice as much as any top 30 industrialized nation and delivers slightly shorter lifespans.

If food or gasoline or electricity cost twice as much as in other nations they would be howling for change.

Not a recent situation, medical costs has been getting worse for 30 years, thru red and blue.

America has a bad case of Doctor worship.

muleboss · May 29, 2014

oldtanker · May 29, 2014

It took 4 months to see an orthopedist at VA for service connected knee problems. That was in 96. I'm still waiting on new knees that they say I need. Now they are trying to tell a 58 year old, 6'5", 260 pound man that he needs to get under 250 pounds before they will replace them. I went and saw a civilian ortho and it took about 3 days to get an appointment (different problem). He told when I ask that he has replaced knees on people well over 300 pounds.

I do know but can't prove that VA billed my medical insurance for service connected care more than once.

Several politicians have tried to get VA reduced in size. Enough staff to handle claims and disability pay. Every time they try the military organization like DAV, VFW and the Legion scream that they need to keep things as they are.

I have told people for years that the need enough doctors to do compensation screenings to determine disability and ratings. then give the Vet a medical card computer coded to pay for service connected care or in the case of people rated at 100% all of their care.

Rick

Anonymous-0 · May 29, 2014

Fudd · May 29, 2014

Yeah, and external_link care will be eventually run the same way.

Mark - IN. · May 29, 2014

I will try one...

Close the VA hospitals down, give the veterans vouchers to go to private hospitals that are local, not regional like VA hospitals that generally lead to travel for most, and from what I understand at least as of late, not real good care.

You asked what we could come up with to make the VA viable? Not a thing. The attention SHOULD BE, what can we come up with to give our veterans better care, and that's what I think that my idea does.

Mark

SKYBOW · May 29, 2014

Easy fix. Pass a law that states that congress and the white House
must receive the same Va care that Vets get. It will be improved/fixed overnight

Bret4207 · May 30, 2014

I don't know all that much about the specifics of the VA issue, but I am intimately familiar with State and Federal gov't bureaucracies. You aren't going to "fix" it. And the idea of "giving the vets a card for free medical services elsewhere" is just going to give you another Medicare/Medicaid system. You trade one bureaucracy for another. An answer? I don't have a perfect one for this issue because the idea of health care "insurance" is a farce to start with. It's a health care plan, there is no insurance involved really. What we need is either an individual savings plan for every single person that they fund themselves or we might as well just go to single payer. Anything between the 2 now is either being footed by taxpayers or consumers, there is no in between. IMO it's better to have individuals fund their own healthcare and to take responsibility for themselves than to expect their neighboring taxpayers or their employers to fund it. If you have no skin in the game, you are aren't going to care what it costs. Right now we have taxpayers paying for s ex change operations, tattoo removal, vanity surgeries, etc. How is that right?

Our problem is that everyone wants someone else to pay for everything they want. Vets, and by that I mean people wounded in action and not people like me that served in the Cold War or peace time and never saw action, deserve something better than they have now, but we shouldn't expect anything different than Medicare/Medicaid having the Feds administrate it.

As far as the Prez and Congress, they shouldn't have any gov't funded healthcare at all. Not VA, not anything. Let them find their own healthcare just like the rest of us. No more housing stipends either, offer them a bunk in a barracks at 8th and I street, and they can eat at the chow hall or pay for their own meals. That would get rid of a lot of the dead weight in DC.

Dan Richardson · May 30, 2014

The VA is getting a bad rap. The only thing we hear about the VA is what the media want's us to hear. More airtime and more print =$$$ for the media. No medical facility VA or private is perfect just like the auto makers. The fact is that VA medical care is ranked among the best in this country. Why would anyone want to work for the VA? Well how about a 40 hour week. No overhead, no malpractice insurance, no partnership problems no insurance companies to deal with and the list goes on. In my experience the staff at the VA are there because they want to be there and they truly care about the veteran. Unlike the Doc that just wants to send their kid to college and make the BMW payment.
The leadership at a VA facility is the answer to the problem. The top dog must run the facility like a well oiled machine and at the same time be able to tell the politicians to buzz off. I'm sure the leadership gets shaky around election time. I can only speak from my own experience and will not condemn any facility just because the media wants me too. I am a vet and an agent orange victim. I can say that the VA takes very good care of me and in return I write stuff like this. A very small price. So, what will it take to make the VA better? The only thing would be to vote out the bad eggs and muffle the media. Unfortunately I don't think that will happen in my lifetime. To the naysayers don't whine every time your medical insurance goes up because you really want that kid to go to college.

mkirsch · May 30, 2014

Frankly I'm not sure what people expected to happen when you have more patients than resources to handle them, and any requests for more resources fall on deaf ears, or are flat out denied.

Between the Iraq/Afghanistan wounded, and all the Boomers pushing 70, the VA system is getting swamped. Again, what are people expecting?

The way the news makes it sound, Snidley Whiplash is cackling evilly and twirling his moustache as he turns vets away at the door of an empty hospital, while the doctors and nurses are inside dancing and doing Tequila shooters!

I have to believe that they are doing the best that they can with what they have. Could they do better? Probably, but it won't be nearly enough.

The only way any change will work is if people are 100% honest and above-board. No abuse. No corruption. Take what you need from the system. Make a reasonable profit from your services/products. No more milking the system for every drop.

We all know that will NEVER happen. Even one person abusing the system, be it a supplier, service provider, doctor, nurse, or even a patient, puts someone else on a waiting list for care.

Billy Shafer · May 30, 2014

The problems is not that they don't have the
resources. The problem is workers not doing their
job. During my 13 hour wait at the Dallas VA. I sat
outside a room where workers were hanging out.
Laughing and joking around. Meanwhile the waiting
room was full.

DaninKansas · May 30, 2014

First time the government gave bonuses to VA officials for succesffuly not treating veterans.

Old Iron · May 30, 2014

(quoted from post at 09:23:45 05/30/14) The problems is not that they don't have the
resources. The problem is workers not doing their
job. During my 13 hour wait at the Dallas VA. I sat
outside a room where workers were hanging out.
Laughing and joking around. Meanwhile the waiting
room was full.

The problem is the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, the union that dominates the VA.

Billy Shafer · May 30, 2014

Yes it is. My father died because of a VA screw
up.The ones that caused it. Still have VA jobs

DaninKansas · May 30, 2014

Actually the number of people the VA is serving is much LOWER than it was just 10 years ago. Many of the WW2 and Korean War veterans have literally died off in the last 10 years. Menawhile VA funding for medical services is up over 120% since 2000 and up 40% since 2008.

IH2444 · May 30, 2014

(quoted from post at 21:58:01 05/29/14) Easy fix. Pass a law that states that congress and the white House
must receive the same Va care that Vets get. It will be improved/fixed overnight

Umm congress approves money for the VA. Make them get the same level of care, etc...

Anonymous-0 · May 30, 2014

Get used to it, with the gov't involved, we'll all wish we have the quality of healthcare, that the VA has now, when bummercare kicks in fully!

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