Discussion for article #223248
As personally ordered by Obama and transmitted through Shinseki as part of a death panel scheme.
Leave it to the MSM to omit the important details.
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14 days goal for an appointment? Who wants to wait that long when sick and need attention? Do I hear veterans have to wait up to two years in certain cases? That’s what government can do for you with it’s idiotic bureaucracy. Knowing that there are people that want even more government to meddle with our lives is just mind-boggling.
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When are we going to visit the Republican budget as the source for these problems? And what solution are we going to apply; demand the heads of some poor civil servants, or actually demand adequate funding for the VA?
Taking care of all those veterans is a continuing expense caused by Bush the lesser’s 2 wars, on top of Bush the elder’s war. Republicans love war, so when are they going to step up to their responsibility to look after all the veterans of those wars?
Wanna bet the Republican response to these problems will be a proposal to cut, not increase, VA funding? Think that might be why the VA tried to hide their shortcomings?
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The 98+% of the citizens of this country are responsible for this. We who served are the cannon fodder avatars for them. This has nothing to do with Party. Without the people flooding Congress to demand we have a chance to get well Congress will do nothing. Saying “Thanks” for what we did does nothing to help the real problem. The people will never care, if they did Congress would be doing what is needed.
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I get that kind of crap all the time from private medical practices. I was sick and diagnosed in the emergency room with Lyme disease, where prompt treatment is essential to avoid serious life-long consequences. When I sought further expert care, I was told they couldn’t fit me in for at least 3 more months.
Prompt medical care should be a right for veterans, and everybody else. Death is not the only consequence that matters; delays cause suffering and debilitation, and they can make minor problems into conditions requiring expensive long-term medical care.
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BTW, this lack of funding of the VA is just baloney that some people set forth to defend the absolute shortcomings of the Obama Administration. For 5 years in a row the VA has more funding that it can spend, funding that has doubled since 2006.
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People - don’t just look to the budget toplines here. The VA does more than direct medical care. Despite the awful failings of some VA medical facilities, the VA made monumental progress in developing housing and services for homeless vets. Don’t minimize those accomplishments, and don’t confuse the total budget with the medical services budget.
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Having talked to every veteran I could find over the weekend, here in Detroit, they are being taken care of. What is happening elsewhere is abomnibal. The system is broke and was before Obama, the right keeps money from those who need and are owed for their service, so without the money how do you fix it?
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Tell you what you drive-by-troll. Maybe if The Republicans hadn’t constantly cut the VA’s budget while at the same time increasing the patient load with two never ending wars it wouldn’t be having the trouble it is today.
Also despite these problems most veterans rate the care they do receive at the VA very highly.
Lets see if you have the guts for a change to respond.
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The disingenuous “outrage” is despicable - this has been a long, long, long standing problem - depending on the specialty, wait time of 180 days to get an appointment were commonplace 10 years ago - Talk to a WWII vet - VA care was not your first choice of you had an option… same for Korea era… Vietnam era … and on & on It has been problematic for a long long time.
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Are you saying those “God Bless America” stickers aren’t adequate?
So you seem to have never tried to make an appointment with a private healthcare facility in the past several decades where you would be lucky to get an appointment within 2 weeks of you calling.
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Yes, because FY2015 will magically filter back in time to prevent staffing shortages.
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It took my husband two months to get an appointment for his shoulder pain with his regular doctor. Those in the VA are not alone having to wait a long time to get a doctor appointment. It took me 4 months to get a dental appointment. The problem with the VA is that they have veterans who are 65 and older who are on Medicare going for treatment at the VA. Why don’t they go to a doctor at their local clinic who takes Medicare???
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Budget cuts are NOT the problem at the VA. The IG report clearly points out that motivation for falsifying data was to justify bonuses for senior execs. The same senior execs that should be requesting additional funding if they couldn’t meet their goals. Why would anyone give them additional funding when their measurements showed they were achieving short wait times?
Because VA care has no copay or deductible. Medicare only pays a portion. Why would a veteran entitled to care aThe VA go to a more expensive provider?
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The current president included promising to fix the wait times in his 2008 campaign. He was full of disdain at that time for well known poor service. He has had 5 years to do something about it. He chose not to.
You forget Mitch McConnell’s campaign to make Obama a one-term president, and the Tea Party House. I don’t think “He chose not to.”
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Actually there has been improvements, but not enough. And when the local VA administrators falsify the reporting, is that a failure of the Secretary of the VA and/or the POTUS?