dumb question: why do we send vets to crappy VA hospitals instead of just giving them insurance?

[yurbud]

like medicare?

Medicare seems to work pretty well without having special old fart hospitals.

[DebJ]

1. what about for amputees? I would think VA is a specialty there.

depressing.

[Warpy]

19. VA rehab is the best I've ever seen

They do things that are miraculous. People who would simply be written off in private hospitals and shipped out to nursing homes can be walking and talking a year later. It really is an amazing place for that.

Plus, their expertise is in rehabbing people after traumatic injuries like head injuries, spinal cord injuries, and amputations. Even if we get single payer, we'll need the VA system to care for the special injuries we've asked our vets to sustain.

[rpannier]

2. There are many reasons

1. VA doctors are better suited at dealing with the psychological effects of having served in the military than most civilian doctors are.

2. There are actually quite a number of outstanding doctors who work at the VA

3. The VA is a one-stop facility for all the needs. In other words, all the doctors are in one location, rather than having to drive all over town to different specialists.


on note: as far as I can tell, the problem at WR was the housing and under-staffing. Not the competancy of the physicians.

[Monkeyman]

4. Agree 100 %

[Breeze54]

5. "The VA is a one-stop facility for all the needs."

That's debatable.

[yurbud]

11. I didn't think the problem was the doctors, rather that the "one stop" is easier to underfund since

civilians don't see it most of the time.

[sce56]

20. Uhh thats if they were to actually fund all of the programs which they never do!

I have yet to use them I get Tricare the military insurance program. I pay $38 a month for what was promised to be free for life once I did my twenty and next year the cost is supposed to double for some and triple for the highest ranking! So much for free for life and the recruiters still tell that story to their marks!
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,125465,00.html

$1.9 Billion Retiree Health Fee Hike
Tom Philpott | February 16, 2007
Projected Health Cuts Seen Tainting Task Force Work

An assumption in the Department of Defense’s 2008 budget request that $1.9 billion will be saved by raising TRICARE fees on military retirees next year “poisons the water” for the work of the Task Force on the Future of Military Healthcare, says a key lawmaker.

The projected savings will reinforce a belief among retiree advocates that the task force is “stacked” and ready to meet DoD cost-cutting targets, said Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), the new chairman of the House armed services’ subcommittee on military personnel.

Snyder leveled that complaint at Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, during a Feb. 13 hearing on the proposed fiscal 2008 defense health budget.

“It was not our intent to poison the water in any way,” Winkenwerder replied. “I hope that’s not the case.”

However, the $1.9 billion hole left in the defense health budget, he added, should be viewed by Congress as a sign of how committed defense leaders, especially military leaders, are to slowing retiree

[Monkeyman]

3. One Reason some of our illnesses are only treated in the VA

Like Agent Orange and some vets with Depleted Uranium

[Olney Blue]

6. Monkeyman, you know that those illnesses

are just in your heads :sarcasm:

Seriously, were those illnesses finally acknowledged by the military? I know Gulf war syndrome is still controversial.

[Monkeyman]

9. Gulf War Syndrome is only controversial to Replugs who fight us on it

There is a Marine who see the results everyday and is keeping records for his book. I hope when it comes out people will yell and scream

[Olney Blue]

22. I would be very interested in that book. I believe it exists.

[Monkeyman]

23. Writers Name Is Dirk Enger

[yurbud]

12. so they don't want the public to see--like a leper colony

[piesRsquare]

7. Not a dumb question...

Not dumb at all.

My guess would be that medical staff at VA hospitals specialize in meeting the needs of Vets, which goes beyond just "fix what's broke".

Other than budgeting stuff, that is.

"Special old fart hospitals" :rofl:

[Monkeyman]

13. Hey watch that old fart stuff from and old fart LOL

[yurbud]

14. so after 80, do you fart dust?

[Monkeyman]

17. I don't know not close yet let you know when I am 80 lol

[bobbie]

8. Because the regime wants poor people to die.

Corporations have owned the country since 1963, if not earlier. And they want "government" functions privitized, which they're pretty much accomplished. What's left of gov't (e.g., the post office) they're strategically starving. And they care about profits not people.

They use poor people to help them invade countries to steal their natural resources under pretense of some patriotic motive. Then they're done with the disposable poor people and--sure 'nuff--they're disposed of.

[yurbud]

18. that's what I was thinking. Not that bad people work in VA, but that Grover Norquist is drowning

vets in the bath tub this time.

[TroglodyteScholar]

10. To keep "regular people" from having to face the realities of war...

...what a drag to go to the hospital and encounter amputees and traumatic brain injuries! It would be nearly IMPOSSIBLE to pretend we're winning the war.

:(

[Allyoop]

15. They're not all crappy

They're what all Americans should be entitled to. My husband is a vet (not combat) and is seen by the VA Hospital staff in Johnson

City, TN. Any American would be glad to be treated with the quality of care he's received there. It takes a while to get something

scheduled if you don't need urgent care. I think the Canadian Health Care system has similar problems with scheduling. But when you

get there you get great care. The staff are even pleasant and doctors will talk to you and answer your questions! I don't know how

the rest of the VA system is, but there was a big push to get all of them computerized and linked, etc. So I think the whole system

has been improved from what it used to be. Of course, BushCo will probably destroy it too.

[Monkeyman]

21. Your Right some a great Hospitals but others all I can say is hmm

Underfunding and understaff is what is breaking down the VA

[rebel with a cause]

29. Never been in the military or even had family in it.

but I remember when the presidents went to Walter Reed Hospital when they became ill. I think when Eisenhower was president (yes, I am that old) it was considered one of the top hospitals in the country.

[neuvocat]

16. I would be leery of the civilian contractors.

There's less chance of cost overruns that way. That's my opinion anyway.

[yurbud]

24. they would go to the same doctors we do, just use different insurance, like medicare patients do.

[Thothmes]

25. VA Hospitals

The Government assumes the responsibility for caring for those veterans that were injured or physically/mentally impaired by their service. This is as it should be. The current Medicare system would not provide all the the services that were required to care for our veterans without some financial charge to the veterans. This would be unacceptable. They were hurt in our service, we have to heal them. Just my opinion.

[geiger]

26. I live above a VA facility and was just wondering the same thing a couple of weeks ago

They certainly do have their specialties, though, and I was told that there's a psychological dimension to this--that only other vets can really understand what other vets are going through.

[yurbud]

30. my reason in asking the question is when it's segregated, they are vulnerable to being under-served

the PTSD stuff could be done in specialized facilities.

[geiger]

35. I agree

[Bridget Burke]

27. Why don't we support VA hospitals fully, instead of cutting funding?

Bush plan would cut VA funding
Critics say fictitious cuts used to falsely balance budget.
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
Article Launched: 02/12/2007 08:38:27 PM PST

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration plans to cut funding for veterans' health care two years from now - even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system.
Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill his pledge to balance the budget by 2012.

After an increase sought for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head. Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly, White House documents assume consecutive cutbacks in 2009 and 2010 and a freeze thereafter.

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_5215075

All VA hospitals are NOT crappy. Why not run them properly? Insurance isn't perfect, either.

[Ganja Ninja]

28. Better yet why not just send them to hospitals and then let ...

the hospital bill the government. No co-pays, no bullshitting around everything paid in full by uncle sam. No if's, ands or buts and no middle men leaching off the system.

[yurbud]

31. that's what I mean. Hell, don't even bill us. Just consider that part of their tax burden

Think some hospitals might start opposing the war then?

[noonwitch]

32. Our VA program in Detroit has vastly improved since 20 years ago

They have a new building that isn't falling to pieces around them, for one thing (the old one was in Dearborn and the buildings have been torn down).

My cousin's ex-husband was a Vietnam Vet. He was really messed up-one of those people who had problems before he went over, and came back worse off than before, and with a drinking problem. He sought psychiatric help from the VA and was prescribed Valium. He loved his therapist so much he brought my cousin with him for marriage counseling, and the doctor prescribed Valium for her, also. No counseling, no therapy, just drugs. She left him shortly after that, due to his going nuts despite the valium.

[Rosemary2205]

33. There's nothing crappy about the medical care at VA hospitals.

In every way the care is superior to what an injured soldier will get via medicare, mainly because the VA specializes in rehabbing severe injuries. The medical care is not the problem. It's the red tape and the housing facilities that are the problem. Quite frankly, the red tape with Medicare is not any better and pretty much all government housing is in terrible condition, whether it's military housing or section 8 or whatever.

The biggest problems are faced by soldiers who go home to areas not served by a VA hospitals. Mainly because the transition from military care to regular civilian care is not as smooth as it should be. The VA is so understaffed that paperwork is routinely lost or takes forever to process. There are not enough case workers to make sure soldiers get what they need outside the VA system and too many are falling through the cracks. Obtaining care once one leaves the VA system should not be a full time job.

[yurbud]

34. I didn't mean to attack those working there, but exactly the kind of issues you bring up

[Rosemary2205]

36. IMHO moving service to medicare won't help

Most people do not realize how bad medicare is. More and more doctors are dropping their medicare patients because the paperwork is too convuluted and the payouts are too small and take forever to get. Medicare is an absolute mess. There is no way soldiers will get what they need out of the medicare system. I truly believe it will be even worse.

IMHO even with single payer healthcare, soldiers deserve a special system that is adequately funded and supported so that they are assured of getting the right care. Battle injuries are very unique and the integrated care required is even more specialized than pretty much anything faced by civilian trauma victims. IMHO.

[yurbud]

37. I wouldn't even literally say medicare, but a portable insurance rather than being tied

to specific providers.

You're right, the primary issue for both of those is funding, which unfortunately, is subject to changing politicals winds and public inattention.

When Republicans say they want to cut entitlement programs they are careful not to say that's what they consider this too.