From the Merely Obvious Department: Private hospitals could take some pressure off VA

Who determined what insurance policies where acceptable or not? Was it the private sector that set up the regulations where people can't keep their doctor or plan, even though they where told they could?
It is manipulated by the private sector under the guidance of the federal govt.
What happens when the govt. decides it needs to cut funding like it did with the V.A.?
What happens when the backlogs of patients starts like it did with the V.A.?

If public were always more efficient and cheaper, how could private survive?

In the US, it seems nearly all hospitals are wholly, or largely, PRIVATE! EVERY hospital in fort wayne, where I now live, is owned by the SAME PRIVATE group. When I was in california, EVERY hospital I went to was owned by KAISER Permanente PRIVATE.
When I was in washington DC, I went to george washington university hospital. It was where Reagan went when he was shot. Apparently IT is private ALSO.

HECK, some hospitals deal with the religious and even identify with religion. Several here identify with being lutheran. St Jude is Catholic. The way the US is going, those hospitals would have to change if they went public.

Steve

Unfortunately, once again I am forced to bring up facts that will do nothing more than make me appear to be a contrarian. I can assure you from the bottom of my heart, that is not my intent. Additionally, I would ask that you set aside your preconceived impressions and or opinions about me personally and just read my words with an open mind - regardless of your political persuasion.

I have been deeply immersed in the VA healthcare system for 45 years. I have been homeless twice from not getting psychiatric care when I needed it most. I have seen the best and worst of what the VA has to offer a seriously ill, disabled veteran. I can speak with a first hand knowledge of the intricacies and bureaucratic foibles of a system that simply has not been able to keep up with the crush of new veterans, mainly over the past decade. Many of these veterans would have expired on the battlefield in past conflicts, but the current medical staff that performs triage in our forward positions are so damn good at what they do that they are now actually capable of performing miracles and they somehow manage to keep mangled bodies alive until they can be rebuilt by other miracle workers who's job it is to take these men and women and transform their shattered bodies and begin to repair their obscenely devastated mental condition.

Unfortunately, the survival of these men and women has created a new class of disabled veteran, one that the VA is working very hard to provide for and most, I repeat, most would say that they are getting exemplary care given their circumstances and the people that staff these hospitals at the caregiver to patient level are some of the hardest working and most dedicated individuals in the healthcare field. We are lucky to have them.

That is not the problem at the VA, an agency that handles approximately 95 million patient interactions per year. The problems are systemic, rooted in a compensation system that breeds corruption and fraud and one that is exacerbated by a failed political system that proclaims a love for the troops but fails them - continuously, contemptuously, brazenly, incoherently and with no end to this cruel lunacy in sight.

There was a time in the not too distant past when the ranks of the House and Senate were filled with - not just veterans, but war veterans, many of whom left pieces of themselves in the mountains of Italy or the shores of the Pacific Islands. No longer. At a time when our nation's veterans need strong advocates we are looking at a legislative body that has the lowest number of veterans in its ranks than at any time in the past 65 years. The newest veteran members of Congress obviously have not been around long enough to gain positions of power and influence as it pertains to veterans issues.

I'll remind you that from the very first days of our most recent conflicts, we had parents purchasing body armor to send to their children that were in harms way. All the government provided was excuses.

In February the Congress beat back a bill that would have provided for the construction and staffing of 22 new state-of-the-art VA facilities. When Republican lawmakers were questioned why they so vehemently opposed the passing of the bill Speaker Boehner said, "That's easy. Our nation simply cannot afford it." Yet, we can afford corporate welfare to the oil companies. We can afford tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. We can afford farm subsidies to agribusiness including many members of the House and Senate. They make damn sure that they get theirs. We can afford foreign aid to countries that take our money with one hand and try to slit our throat with the other. We can give the military industrial complex billions in defense contracts to keep weapons programs alive that the top military leaders scream at the top of their lungs that they have absolutely no need of and use for. We can do all of that and then, to add insult to injury we create and encourage a compensation system in the agency that provide millions of dollars in bonuses in each and every facility for people simply doing their jobs to the best of their ability - an absolutely ludicrous and shameful proposition if I have ever heard one. The people that have falsified records to obtain these bonuses need to be fired, criminally charged, jailed and forced to publicly apologize to the American public that they are supposed to represent in providing first-class care to veterans.

Additionally, politicians who continuously turn their backs on the troops need to be drummed out of office and shamed for the rest of their lives. Pardon my French, but they are lower than whale shit! They love to polish that American flag lapel pin and spend their days dialing for dollars while upwards of 22 veterans a day take their own lives and there are still tens of thousands of them sleeping in the streets from one end of the richest nation on the planet - to the other. I was one of them. Too sick to live anything that remotely resembled a normal life, yet even in my sickness, too proud to ask for assistance.

At a personal level, I have been blessed to obtain incredibly competent and caring treatment for my PTSD and Agent Orange poisoning that at different times in my life have completely crippled me - both mentally and physically. It is a testament to the dedication of the VA caregivers that I have encountered that I am still alive. I honestly don't know how they have done it and not a single day of my life goes by that I don't take a few minutes to contemplate how fortunate I have been and to give thanks that even with my acerbic, demanding and not taking any bullshit from anyone stance, that I am treated as if I am their only and most valuable patient. It's mind-boggling what they put up with from me and they never complain.

Truth be told, the only time that they ever failed me was when they sent me outside of the VA system to a local hospital for immediate, emergency treatment that was so incompetent that I almost died and it took me close to 6 months to recover from. That said, they did believe they were taking the proper action as they were afraid that I was in imminent danger of dieing. I have absolved them of any responsibility for what transpired except for not following up after putting me out of the VA system and into a facility that provided me with the absolute worst medical care that I have ever received in my entire life.

All I know is that that firing General Shinseki will not change a damn thing for a single day and dumping extra hatred on President Obama won't either. The power to change this sorry state of affairs lies in only one place and that is, your hands. No one but you can fix this deeply flawed, decades old, ingrained institutional failure.

Until you hold your elected representative accountable, nothing will ever change. Don't pick up the phone and call their office to politely voice your concern and displeasure. Do what I do. Pick up the phone, call their office and scream at the top of your lungs some profanity-laced words that accurately portray your loathing for this contemptuous behavior. It feels great! Call me crazy if you wish, but I can assure you that a few hundred calls in that vein will have a profound impact on the way that this problem will be dealt with in the future. People will always do what they know they can get away with and they need to be shaken out of their comfort zone.

The GOP loves to call President Obama a wimp, but do you want to know who they think the true wimps are in this country. You! They think that you're the wimps because no matter what they do, from playing golf on your dime to legally trading on insider information, to making sure no matter how much money they entered Congress with they'll damn sure leave as millionaires and then become lobbyists - all the while sticking it up the ass of the American public - and worst of all fostering the slow decline of a once great nation while they stuff their pockets with money and they couldn't care less if a veteran or you, gets their next meal.

You're not happy with the situation? Then get off of your dead, lard ass, raise a little hell and get to know what it feels like to effect change in the world. Get out of your state of perpetual somnambulism and take charge of the world around you or forever quit your friggin' bitchin' about how America is going to hell in a hand basket. And stop the crap about how President Obama spends every waking moment looking to fundamentally transform America's by secretly working to change our trajectory and place in the new world order. Give me a break. If you honestly believe that you need to be committed. You're insane.

You folks have been begging for a scandal to prove your point. Now, forget your phony scandals and let's see you sink your teeth into a real scandal and do something to rectify it or is that too hard when compared to just sitting around blaming the administration for every single thing that's wrong with America.

If you don't grab the problem by the balls and squeeze a little - then YOU ARE THE PROBLEM WITH AMERICA. You, you and only you.

So, is your love of and concern for the troops rooted in sincere feeling or just more bloviating by a bunch of feckless weasels that in the end are no better than the politicians that you have put into office? I don't know. Only time will tell. Whatever happened to, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more." Oh - - right! That's only in the movies - and in my twisted mind. lol

Yeah - I'm still trapped in the 60's in many ways, so I'll leave you with this bon mot - "Dig yourself."

Hopefully most of you will have fully learned by now that I couldn't give a hairy rat's ass what you think, feel, say or do as it relates to me. I am completely oblivious to your existence. FDR said it best. "I welcome their hatred!" That, my friends is one of the ultimate joys of being profoundly disabled from PTSD for nearly half a century. Wow! Damn, I'm old, but I'm still kicking. Do you know why? Because I live on a steady diet of piss and vinegar. Yum-yum!!! May I have a second helping, please?

I know that I'll be banned permanently because of my little tirade but I've always been a cost/benefit analysis kind of guy. If anything I've said motivates at least one of you to actually commit to making a concerted effort to try to initiate change in our little corner of the world, then I shall wear my banishment from the fold as a badge of honor.

All I ask is that you remember that the clowns in DC truly do not care if you live or die. Your existence on the planet is an annoyance that they will tolerate until they can come up with a surreptitious plan to get rid of as many of you as possible in the shortest amount of time, after taking all of your money.

Paranoid? Perhaps, but in my world paranoia is nothing more than being in possession of all the facts.

Peace.

Big Frank

Just think if he said "it was great" instead you could of cut your rant in half.

lol. I'm willing to bet my house that I know what his position is without ever having read of word of his on that particular subject. I'm just sayin' . . . . . :rolleyes:

Cheers. - Frank

He would probably be dumbfounded! WHY "upgrade" mediocrity? Why throw money into what you know it won't help?

Well, REALIZE..... YOU ARE BEING PLAYED!!!!!! The other party had ABSOLUTE POWER, starting in 2007, and they KNEW ABOUT THIS, and THEY DIDN'T DO WHAT THEY CLAIM MUST NOW BE DONE! So that little fact should make it clear that they aren't telling the truth.

PROOF that Obama KNEW about this in 2008, and PROMISED TO FIX IT!


OK, you may doubt this due to the date, but it says OBAMA WAS TOLD!!!!!!!



OK, let's say you were right. Give a VALID solution! Do you realize that as the US cuts back, china builds up steam? Do you realize that china does NOT care about the planet or treaties? THEY said the SAME!!!!!!

OK, so the VA isn't CLOSE to being as important as your CC beliefs. Whatever happened to GW? AGAIN, give a REAL solution!

Steve

Well, I won't argue over one word of what you have stated.

If there is any argument at all to be had, it is rooted strictly in semantics.

Cheers. - Frank

I WISH I could call you a kook, but even MONSANTO ALONE, YIKES!!!!! Wheneven CHINA won't accept our stuff, it should give you a reason to pause.

China’s Shut-Out of American Corn Won’t End Anytime Soon - Corporate Intelligence - WSJ

From wikipedia:

We ARE seeing similar things. I say similar because the idea of "focus", for example, is on BOTH! In germany, it was one against others. Here, it is all others against one. And I think wecan ALL agree there is a class war. Most saw THIS as fascism.

The mixed economy is obviously happening.

And the autarky HERE is certainly failing. I think failure is the goal. ICSM

Steve

While I greatly admire General Shinseki's service to our country, both in and out of uniform, it was his management style that exacerbated the festering problems at the VA, which ultimately led to his ouster.

Personally, I believe that you need someone with the personality of Gen. George C. Patton to tackle the job. Imagine someone of that type showing up at the Phoenix VA and inquiring, "OK, which one of you horse's ass is the son of a bitch that's responsible for denying my troops their God given right to the health care that 'I' promised them after serving in 'MY' Army??? Yeah, OK - those other branches of the military, too - panty wearing little girls that they are?"

Seriously. Why are all of our leaders such pansies??? Not a testosterone overloaded barbarian (that's a complimentary term) among them.

Way too many 'participation trophies' over the past 20 years. ENOUGH!!!

President Obama is cut from the same taffeta. Where the hell is 'angry black man' when you need one.

Pathetic!

Cheers. - Frank