Veterans: How do you feel about the issue of Universal Single

[jwirr]

Payer Health Care? How would the VA fit under this idea? My son-in-law has to drive to a local clinic and then clear across state to the big VA hospital for care. He has also had to go to local doctors because VA would not give him the help he needed for his military related injuries. He would rather have a right to go to any doctor that he wants and locally. On the other hand I know that VA nursing facilities provide specific war related care so I would want them to continue the same. I am just fishing for your ideas?

[Warpy]

1. I can see the VA system as being used what it does best

I worked in the VA system and it had the best overall rehab for brain and spinal cord injuries out there. Some people would come in after they'd been stabilized (barely) by another facility and we'd wonder why they'd bothered. Six months later, the guy would be getting ready to go home. I would imagine their orthopedic rehab is equally stellar. They are war injury specialists and they do the job very well.

Universal single payer health insurance would enable your SIL to get routine care close to home. Specific care dedicated to his war injuries can best be handled by the VA system. Really.

[benddem]

2. If it was universal we wouldn't have to drive

across the state. The VA is great. I had surgery there and the care was superior. As a nurse I think I know when I'm being well taken care of. I receive my care at a local clinic and then go to the main hospital when I need to see a specialist. The VA care has been judged to be the best in the US. Sometimes you do have to go to local docs when the specialists care is not available.
Do not make a decision about universal care based on the number of VA hospitals and clinics. It wouldn't work like that. Besides...* and friends have severely restricted the nos. of facilities and didn't increase the budget to account for the Iraq vets.
Single payer means that only one group would be responsible for paying for the care. This would eliminate the physicians, hospitals and other health care providers from submitting bills to a myriad of different insurance carriers with different rules. Currently medicare's overhead costs are about 3% the insurance carriers are 30%. Look at the fancy office buildings and skyscrapers they have. Who do you think pays for that?
Go single payer. The health care system is a complete wreck and will get worse if we don't do something drastic.

[noamnety]

3. We need options other than the VA

What the recruiter led me (and my ex) to believe about the VA was flat out untrue, and when he needed them, they abandoned him. Heck, when I was active duty and needed health care, the military doctor abandoned me. I've known some great medics and doctors in the army who have my full respect and gratitude, so I'm not trying to paint with the broadbrush there, but I also know people who have died the same day they were dismissed from sick call, for the very thing they went in for, and I know veterans (my ex) who've had to go overseas to get health care because they couldn't get it here. So I have a strong preference for being able to chose my doctor. I don't have a prejudice against the army docs, like I said, but if I know one is failing me, I want the option to see someone else, just as I would with a civilian doctor.

And we have Iraq veterans who have committed suicide because the VA wouldn't acknowledge they had PTSD and treat it. Things like PTSD and DU poisoning reflect so poorly on the military that one can't help but suspect that a neutral doctor without pressure from the military could more accurately diagnose and treat veterans who have something other than a standard physical injury.

Any system that gives you the option of getting a second opinion, of finding a doctor that meets your own needs, of working independent of political pressure, can only be a good thing.

[acmejack]

4. I am all for it!

The VA is a great example of efficient health care. The negotiate the lowest price for their drugs, they get the most bang for their buck & they do a great job with what they have. They have kept my sorry ass alive (I was told by the best Neurologist in Austin that I was terminal in 2001 with about 24 months left & here I am! Much to my enemies confoundment, my heir's chagrin, & my own delight! I complain much less & am a much happier person too.) The VA is example of what every American should have available to them as a right, just like free speech.

on edit: Reflecting on the post above: There is a tendency to be extremely stingy with pain medication, to regard problems less than a severed limb as insignificant, long appointment lead times, and a general lack of responsiveness that is not present in the civilian community. So it is not without problems, but the price is still right. If, big if, you are service connected disabled.

[Coastie for Truth]

5. Dr Elbein at the Little Rock Arkansas VA Hospital

is one of the "names" in diabetes management.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. I'd be all for single payer...

as a Viet Nam era vet, the VA has been my "health insurance" for a while, and I've gotten decent care when I needed it, but getting there has always been a problem and I don't know what I'd do if I needed emergency care. Appointments are getting more and more difficult to get.

With single payer, there would be massive adjustments in the entire health care system, and I don't know whether I would be better off or not, but I suspect most of us would ultimately be better off, if only because we could see somebody faster and closer. Some who have specific problems that the VA has handled well may not be so well off. The center I'm registered at has a great psychiatric unit that has outpatient and resident vets from Korea and Viet Nam. I don't know where they'd go under single payer, and other units have other specialties, like rehab, that could get lost in the shuffle.

[madokie]

8. I didn't read your reply before I posted but when I have a problem

that I feel may need attention all I have to do is go to urgent care and I see a doctor in a matter of a couple of hours. I brag on them to my two brother who are Vets too. but they haven't needed the care I have, the lucky dogs. just kidding about the dogs ok.

[madokie]

7. I don't know about universal single payer health care, but I can vouch

for the VA. I had a blood clot in my left leg, DVT, 4 years ago and I went to the VA as I didn't have any health insurance. I spent a week at the va and they treated me as someone to be treated well. I have no complaints about my care and the follow ups. Today I am disabled with P.A.D. and I couldn't get any better treatment anywhere else. Thats all, I just wanted to plug the VA.

[jwirr]

9. I thank all of you for your answers. I will help me to know what to

lobby for in a health plan.

[bedpanartist]

10. Bring it on...

The current health care system in the US is a multi-tenacled monolithic beast that only benefits a few corporate giants. Bring it down like the Combat Engineers comin' to town!

US Army National Guard Combat Engineers
1987-1995

[cynatnite]

11. Some good and some bad...

For those who live so far away from a VA hospital, I think it's needed.

We live less than 30 miles and it works pretty well.

Keep in mind the VA care isn't what it used to be. The co-pays for prescriptions are higher, they don't supply the same meds and many they flat out won't supply at all such as pain meds. The system is being overwhelmed as we speak.

What I do like about the VA is that most people working there are vets themselves and that adds to the wonderful care a person can get.

But in some cases the rules have been rolled back to WWII days. If my hubby goes to the ER I can't go in with him. I am allowed as far as the lobby. He has to pitch a fit for them to bring me back there. My grandmother told me when her husband died many years ago at a VA hospital, she wasn't allowed to be with him. They basically told her how it was going to be and she had to put up with it.

These things are recent changes at the Mountain Home VA in E. TN. I don't know if this is happening at other hospitals or not.

While the care is still good, what the vets get just isn't what it should be. Thinking about it, I guess I'd have to agree. Vets should be able to get the best possible care...well, all people should and not just vets.