Discussion for article #224559
So, why is this a scandal for the President and not for the Congresspersons and/or Senators who failed this constituent?
10 Likes
The illegitimate 43rd POTUS didn’t fix the problems with the VA…so that they could blame it on the next Democratic President. It just took longer than they figured for their scum to rise to the surface of the blame pond.
5 Likes
WBZ in Boston reported that Susan Chase, whose husband Doug served in Vietnam, received a letter two weeks ago from her local VA hospital telling Doug he could now schedule an appointment with a primary care doctor. But Doug died in the summer of 2012 of a brain tumor.
2 years for an appointment with a primary care doctor, not a specialist, a primary care doctor. For a brain cancer, not just a pimple on the forehead, brain cancer. WOW…just WOW!!! This isn’t something random that happens once in a blue moon, this is endemic in all government managed healthcare, in this and any other Nation that has one.
And there is people out there that wants more of this. Unbelievable!!!
TPM using photos of President Obama such as the one on top of this story shows just how much TPM has become more Drudge News-like everyday. This has become all too typical of TPM. Shoddy and exceptionally low standards. Not that anyone there seems to care.
7 Likes
Disgraceful and tragic. I can’t believe what this poor family endured, including the refusal of funeral support. Sounds like the Vietnam vets are still getting the shitty end of the stick decades later as if they are being punished for that needless war. I sure hope the new guy, if the Repugs will confirm, can turn things around quickly for our military. My father had superior care at the VA in Memphis in the late '70s and early '80s, so it appears VA had it together at one time. I do believe that the incredibly high influx of patients from two war zones had a serious impact. But men like this poor soul don’t have time to wait. Rigorous triage is in order.
Don’t 'cha know? EVERY FRIGGING THING THAT GOES WRONG IN THIS COUNTRY IS PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FAULT!!!
2 Likes
I think that’s just a bit of an over reach there, Libs:
Boy, is this troll stupid. It doesn’t notice that the patient was diagnosed with and treated for a brain cancer elsewhere, so this was probably for a routine check-up. But right-wing conservatards will pump anything for the purpose of their mistaken ideology.
The stupidity is layered upon more stupidity. One instance of out-of-date records in a system that deals with millions of people means an entire way of offering health care is invalid. And there’s another minor point overlooked—Obamacare isn’t government-managed healthcare. Other than those minor deficiencies it’s a great contribution to the discussion.
2 Likes
My father got a followup letter asking about his mother’s condition at least a year after she died in the hospital–private hospital, good insurance. It’s not just a VA thing. (We decided he should write back and tell them she was stable.)
1 Like
This is sad and rotten, but it’s not limited to the VA. It’s a crappy database error. A few months after my mother died in a well-regarded private hospital, she got a survey in the mail asking how well she was satisfied with the care she had received.
What is not being covered in all these horror stories is the VA
category of the veterans. Being a veteran does not automatically
put you in to category 1 (only veterans rated 100 % disabled by the
VA are assigned this category). I think there are 6 categories,
obviously the higher the category the more prompt the service. If
you are in category 4 or lower odds are you will be on a long list.
Clearly our resident troll libs understands nothing about this.
Although I am category 2 I rarely use the VA since I have my own
insurance and Medicare. It would really be nice for the press to
indicate the categories in their stories of all the horribles of the VA.
It was, of course, the cost-cutters in congress who decided to nickel-and-dime that promise of medical care for veterans.
Why didn’t the family notify the VA that the patient had passed away? They have to notify everyone else, including SSA.
In breaking news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
Is Jahi still dead?
She won’t die until the donations dry up.
Obama picture yet the article has nothing to do with Obama? Is TPM going to use an Obama picture every time a bad thing happens now?
Actually this has been an issue with the VA since post WWI. Some VA venues such as what your father dealt with 40 years ago are on top of it. However unfortunately many are not. At the end of the day the VA hospital system is a bad business model. In many states veterans have to drive to a border state to receive health care.
Another major problem is training. Many of the non-medical staff and even nursing staff have very little to no training as to handle patience from scheduling to administering meds. In my business we train people to have G.A.S. (Give A $hit). When a person is hired and thrown in the fire and they see their new co-workers not caring about taking care of their jobs in a professional manner then why should they. At the end of the day these people have customer service careers. However when budgets are created the idea of training new and current employees are not in the cards so it does not happen. Add years of this to the equation and you have what you have today.