VA at capacity.... just lay them over there next to the copier.......

[HysteryDiagnosis]

Man oh man do we have issues... we'll just have to write them a check... who cares if it bounces.... crap.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm?Page=Article&ID=3867

VA not ready for casualties from 2 fronts, critics say

By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Washington - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - blasted by Congress last week for underestimating the cost of veterans' health care by as much as $2.7 billion through 2006 - faces growing patient loads and stretched services as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

About 103,000 veterans from the wars will have used VA medical care by the end of September - four times what the agency predicted when it budgeted for 2005. And with about 145,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq and 16,700 in Afghanistan, thousands more veterans can be expected to need medical care.

The VA insists that it is fulfilling its mission, while others are criticizing the way it has planned for veterans' needs.

"Veterans are being served," Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson told The Denver Post last week. "Our veterans are getting world-class care."

In a system with more than 5 million patients, the VA believes it can absorb and care for those injured in the Iraq war, whatever the number, said VA spokesman Phil Budahn.

Yet many veterans fresh from the Iraqi battlefield say agency services already are overwhelmed.

[noamnety]

1. I wonder if the young republicans support the troops enough

that they'd be willing to repeal part of the Bush tax cut to fully fund VA programs.

[bryant69]

5. No

And this is why any discussion of the cost of this war must be avoided at all costs. the American people must never realize how expensive it is or they might consider repealing them.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[blondeatlast]

2. These two paragraphs speak volumes...

Many are asking whether the Bush administration failed to adequately plan for treating the wounded as part of the cost of the more than 2-year-old Iraq war.

"The number of cases the VA has seen (from Iraq) is still only a fraction of what's going to arrive," said Charles Sheehan- Miles, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. "The system's not going to be able to handle that."

Apparently, EVERYONE BUT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION KNEW WHAT'S COMING.

I try hard not to wish that no ill to anybody, but would they be this callous if it was their children facing this fate?

Nominated--everyone needs to read this, IMHO.

[acmejack]

3. The VA Has signs here asking you not to show up more than 30m early

Due to lack of seating. Finding a seat to wait in is problematic anyways. They will absorb it by changing the acceptance criteria upward. They have established 8 different priority classifications of veterans. They will simply stop providing care for the lowest priority veterans.

[Coexist]

4. Some good news - the VA hospital here in Tampa will be expanding soon

after several delays - they got their funding.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. We're just starting on a VA hospital in Las vegas

so there's so small amount of money going to them, but not NEARLY enough.

[Coexist]

10. I know - hubby's company bid the job twice -

only to have the project cancelled TWICE for lack of funds. Disgusting while we are at war. While Halliburton gets a bonus that would have covered the cost of the ENTIRE F*#KING PROJECT.

Sick.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Yeah ....

I'm on the design side ...... funded .... 'defunded' ..... funded ...... 'defunded' ........ funded for now ....... we'll see .......

[blondeatlast]

9. They just expanded and gave a facelift (outside) to the one

here in Phoenix.

Still, I see the Vietnam (some WW@ and Korea) era vets wandering the streets outside,; homeless, just waiting to be ill enough to be admitted.

It's a sight I see everyday as I drive to work (for 7 years), and it STILL sickens me. And it seems to be getting worse.

[blondeatlast]

6. And so very many of these veterans are PARENTS.

Iraq is different than Vietnam in the sense that far, far more of those serving in combat are parents. I see this becoming an enormous problem.

Children whose parents are serving in Iraq are going to have emotional problems we cannot anticipate. Imagine a 12 year old with PTSD--if mom and/or dad served in Iraq, it isn't that hard to see happening.

We are going to pay for the mistakes made in this evil, unnecessary war for generations. The children of our Iraq vets are going to have emotional problems, then they become parents, and so on.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. I read this sort of story and I have to wonder why ANY

veteran organization continues to support idiot son on ANYthing. He has completely abandoned the vets, let alone his gross misues of our active duty military.

Sure, we're aware of this, but why is it not a front page story?

And where are our veteran organizations? Maybe that's why, for more than 30 years, I have avoided joining them.

[blondeatlast]

11. Front page story--exactly.

My dad was a WW2 vet. If this is what awaited them when they returned, all hell would have broken loose. There would have been rioting and revolution in the streets.

How have we become so immune? So tolerant?

Did the nation learn NOTHING from Vietnam?

[acmejack]

12. They did learn well

In WW2 there was a really large number of veterans. After nam, probably after Korea actually, they figured out they could ignore a smaller number of people and get away with it.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. And 'ignore' they did .... there are **still** Vietnam vets in the

shits all these years later.

[barbaraann]

15. Here's the company responsible.

http://www.acumen-llc.com/


Clients and Affiliates

This list includes some of the organizations that Acumen, LLC has done, or is doing, research for.

Industry

Roche

Genentech

Actelion

Genomic Health

Allergan



Federal

Congressional Budget Office

Department of Veterans Affairs

U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Child Care Bureau Research & Data

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)


As I posted earlier, this company has ties to Stanford when Condi Rice was Provost.

[dogday]

16. An expose' needs to be done on the VA hospitals

American needs to see what happens to these brave and noble soldiers that come home. They are blind to their plight and need to see what they have been supporting for war and not supporting afterwards...