Discussion for article #223257
THIS IS A HORRENDOUS PROBLEM - but it is also a long standing one - It goes way way back - ask vets from every era since WWII who have had to use the VA system & they will tell you of long waits & limited availability of state-of-the-art care.
Which is why I do not understand veterans groups adhering to this (much?) less than functional VA system. I briefly worked in the VA system, and it is not ideal, to say the least. Why not dismantle it, and fold it into ACA?
You mean so that, for instance, low-income veterans can be completely left out in states with republican governors?
Snark aside, our current civilian health care system has lots of big holes in it. Dropping millions of additional patients into it, and either building new hospitals and medical centers or closing the VA ones and reopening them as public hospitals would be a huge mess. Not to mention the odds of transferring even the current VA level of funding to the new system to pay for it (much less the $20-50B additional every year needed as a result of our most recent set of wars) with republicans in charge of the House.
Maybe once we’ve got the civilian side or or less in order, we could see about transferring veterans. But doing it now in response to a scandal would be a recipe for even more scandals. Start by fixing (and properly funding) what we’ve got.
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Now to work on the systematic problems facing veterans along with the institutional issues of a lack of resources and indifference from Congress.
First order of business should be the cleaning out of the middle level managers and system of favoritism and nepotism. If Congress finds the time some oversight would be helpful. Feeding the war machine requires paying attention to the service members.
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I can’t help but wonder how many letters, emails, phone calls McCain and Flake got about the long waits before the whistleblower came forward. You can’t tell me they didn’t know about this. You can’t tell me vets didn’t call their elected reps about this. I think these two fools know how they voted on additional funding for the VA in view of the huge influx of additional troops coming into the system and the fact that PTSD was finally officially recognized as legit. These guys are trying to cover their own butts by throwing Shinseki under the bus. McCain has hated him since he said we would need 300,000 troops in Iraq before the invasion. They hate him because he was right then and they threw him under the bus. Any honor McCain had is gone.
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The Repubs want to do this to overwhelm the civilian system into chaos and then blame it on Obamacare. Their games are clear to so many of us. They didn’t want to do that when the Building 18 fiasco at Walter Reed blew open. Have you seen any follow up stories on how that is going? Of course not.
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Oversight? They are too busy with the bogus IRS and Benghazi scandals. If all you can destroy is one 4 star general, this is no fun.
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“Several Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for Shinseki’s resignation as allegations of mistreatment at VA facilities came to light in recent weeks.”
Idiots. Political craven fools.
That’s my healthcare system, and while Baltimore doesn’t have these problems, I do have to wait for some stuff. But no more than I suffer with my private insurance. And at least when I am seen by the VA, the appointment takes as long as it needs. It isn’t an assembly line fee generations service.
This is a regional problem, heads will roll. If they want to point the finger at anyone, they can turn it inward, for not funding the VA sufficiently, and for not ramping it up for the Iraq and Afghan vets we KNEW were coming.
And at EVERY past administration which has punted on problems like the Merchant Marine, Lejeune Water, Agent Orange, Desert Storm Syndrome, etc.
I just want to punch them in the faces. But I won’t, because I have discipline instilled on Parris Island. Maybe a quick trip there would help these gormless delta minuses understand that problem solving is about identifying the problem, forming a plan to confront it, and then executing that plan.
Not trying to win political points.
And I include on this list all Ds and Rs who are thinking taking the resignation side will make them seem electable.
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My Dad was a veteran of WW2. Never once did he ever go to the VA for health care. Now I know why
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Terry, I think the major (but not only) root of the problem with the VA is the actions of Congress. Look at McCain. He is currently filibustering a bill that would add some funding to the VA.
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I emailed McCain, Flake and Ron Barber (my AZ Congressman). The only response I have gotten in nearly 3 weeks is an acknowledgement that the email was received from Flakes office. I had asked for a response from each one of the 3. I believe I have identified the problem.
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DT,
Your dad probably never went because he never needed it. His private insurance was affordable (or part of his benefits) and unless he had a grievous wound from service, he wouldn’t have thought of it.
As to the major root of the problem is that we, as a nation, have not acted. Sure, the moron Tea Partiers threw gas on the fire, but there was still a pretty big blaze going. EVERY president of modern times has a hand in this, as does every congress.
Shinseki (and therefore Obama) is the first VA Secretary to do the right thing. Unfortunately, it was probably a realistically incorrect action, as the VA he inherited from Bush 43 was hopelessly at sea, but the things he did like accepting Agent Orange claims, etc, were the right thing to do.
We are all to blame. Anyone who wants to support the troops needs to vote for someone with Ron Paul’s foreign policy and Bernie Sanders’ domestic policy.
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My Dad had what we now call PTSD. He suffered nightmares. He drank to try to forget. When asleep if disturbed he’d hit the ground running (still semi-asleep) in an attempt to get to his plane (he was a pilot of a torpedo plane) yelling that the Japanese were here. When awake and sober he was taciturn about the war. I know of 110 carrier missions in the Pacific theater. He flew 2 a day off Henderson Field on Guadalcanal also for several months that I have no record of. He was not physically wounded but he certainly deserved some psych treatment. He had malaria but got over it and some kind of fungus on his feet that lasted for years. I think he could have benefited from VA health care.
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He sure could have. I wasn’t wounded either, and it was only after 12 years and after my friend in the DAV hounded me about it that I had my hearing checked.
A big part of why I held off was that I didn’t want to clog the system up. There were guys with no legs that needed my appointment. Probably part of why your dad didn’t go (and the mental health stigma common to his times)
It also speaks to why some of these wait listers didn’t speak up.
BTW, being a Torpedo bomber pilot was a dangerous job. Probably the most dangerous of the Pacific air war. Your father most likely lost many friends, and daily faced horrific danger.
Also, depending when he was aboard Henderson field, it was a dangerous place to be. Before Rabaul was isolated and rendered ineffective, Henderson would get pounded daily by bombers from there. I don’t think TBFs were flying from Henderson while it was still being pelted by the Tokyo express (destroyers) or while the field itself was under threat from IJN ground elements, but it was never a happy place to be.
The TBF was called the Turkey, and it was the heaviest single-engined plane of the war. It handled like a flying tug boat and was screwed if any Japanese planes showed up. It made the difference in some important battles, but it was truly a flying coffin
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I know for a fact my dad bombed Rabaul. His wing man told me so at the funeral in 1995. It was one action he got an air medal for. One of three. I have his log book listing the missions off an escort carrier (USS Anzio) as I mentioned. The notes list friends lost. My Dad described being shot at from one end of the runway at Henderson so it must have been during fairly unstable times. I do not know the specific dates, unfortunately. I know he survived engagements with zeros or other Japanese fighters often enough that by early to mid 1944 the powers that be were asking he be sent to teach others what he had learned about tactics. He said he was at the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot which had to have been one of his last actions as that took place in June of '44. He hated talking about the war. He hated it when he heard people bragging about exploits in war. Early in John McCain’s time in the Senate my Dad called him “a professional Hero”. Even though my Dad was a republican he never liked McCain. I appreciate that you are knowledgeable about the TBF and that era.
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My father, a WWII vet got outstanding VA medical services until he passed away due to congestive heart failure.
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I was an historian for my last two years in the Corps. Tactical before that. Just got lucky and talked my way into good duty. I have the utmost respect for the TBF and dive bombers. It’s one of the reasons I always liked Pappy Bush personally.
I have the same reaction when people get all noble about their service, or brag about it. One of the points of our Constitution is that service just a thing we do when we are needed, and we don’t do it for a king.
The Turkey Shoot was something else. I interviewed your father’s contemporaries for my research, and I had several sons who were there when I was talking to them tell me afterwards that they had never heard any of what I had got out of their fathers before. It is a common attitude.
Personally, what little merde I did see, I keep to myself. Plenty of drunken escapades to talk about.
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