Republicans want to privatize the V.A.
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Sunday, September 26, 2010 00:26
VIEWED: 4782
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Their little "manifesto" leaves it out, but from things Republican candidates and others around the country have said now and in the recent past, it's out there: Quote:
Then there's McCainm who
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) cautioned that he was fully aware that such a move would close down hospitals for veterans. But, Westmoreland argued that taking down the government is worth “the pain” because government programs are like a “gangrene” that “need to be cleaned out”:Quote:
I was unfortunate to cut myself with a chainsaw. I don’t know how many of you have cut yourself with a chainsaw. Chainsaw is not the cleanest instrument if you’re going to cut yourself. [...] He said this is going to sting a little bit and it hurt like crazy. But you know what, if he didn’t clean out that wound, it would have never healed. I would have got gangrene. I would have died from it. And what has happened with this country, we have put bandaids on things that need to be cleaned out. It’s going to take some pain for us to do the things that we need to do to right the ship.Quote:
has talked of a new mission for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals - in other words, an end to the kind of universal health care the government has guaranteed veterans for generations.
A recent study by the RAND Corporation found that "VA patients were more likely to receive recommended care" and "received consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow up" than that delivered by other U.S. health care providers.
Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and executive director of the non-partisan Veterans for Common Sense, says that for McCain, free market ideology is more important than providing care for former soldiers.
"Ideologues like John McCain and George Bush hate the fact that the VA exists," Sullivan said. "They hate the fact that there's a functional example out there of the government providing better care at a lower cost than the private sector," Sullivan said. "The problem that the VA faces now is that the Bush administration failed to hire enough doctors and disability claims adjusters when they chose to go to war with Iraq. If these doctors had been hired, the VA would be an example of the government doing good work. McCain doesn't want the public to see that."
McCain has also never spelled out what he means by a "combat injury", leading many veterans worried they could be left out in the cold. "If I'm driving a Humvee in Iraq and a roadside bomb explodes and I veer off the road and crush my arm and end up losing it and needing a prosthetic, is that a combat wound according to Sen. McCain?" asked retired Air Force Colonel Richard Klass, the president of the Council for a Livable World's VETPAC, which has endorsed Obama.
Official Pentagon policy calls such an incident a non-combat injury. Technically speaking, the only soldiers "wounded" in combat are those hit by direct enemy fire. As of Aug. 5, Department of Defense statistics showed 32,799 U.S. soldiers had been "wounded" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another 10,685 had sustained "non-hostile" injuries which required a medical evacuation, while 29,881 were classified as "ill" enough to be airlifted out of the war-zone.
McCain has repeatedly voted against fully funding veterans' health care. In 2005 and 2006, McCain voted against expanding mental health care and readjustment counseling for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, efforts to expand inpatient and outpatient treatment for injured veterans, and proposals to lower co-payments and enrollment fees veterans must pay to obtain prescription drugs.
McCain's vote also helped defeat a proposal by Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow that would have made veterans' health care an entitlement programme like social security, so that medical care would not become a political football to be a
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Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
go tell the nation`s veterans that you want to take the V.A. away. Go talk to the veterans` organizations. See what they think of privatizing veterans` care and ending the V.A.
I have never met a Vet happy with the V.A. They complain about long waits, horrible bureaucracy, and substandard care at substandard facilities. In other words...ObamaCare.
The idea of privatizing the V.A. goes back decades. The idea is to emliminate the V.A. and allow vets to use their benefits anywhere (not to get rid of the benefit).
If you serve you get free health care...but not at the best hospitals, not right away, not from the doctor of your choosing. Democrats love it and want that for everyone...so long as they can opt out.
H
"Hero. I have come to respect you." "I am forced to agree with Hero here."- Chrisisall, 2009.
"I would rather not ignore your contributions." Niki2, 2010.
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Quote:
I don’t know how many of you have cut yourself with a chainsaw.
What kind of a moron cuts himself with a chainsaw? {done listening...}
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Who ARE these new people? Here's another one that just joined today and has only posted once: here...
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off 
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hero:
I have never met a Vet happy with the V.A. They complain about long waits, horrible bureaucracy, and substandard care at substandard facilities. In other words...ObamaCare.
The facts don't back up your position. Or theirs.
Quote:
Yet here's a curious fact that few conservatives or liberals know. Who do you think receives higher-quality health care. Medicare patients who are free to pick their own doctors and specialists? Or aging veterans stuck in those presumably filthy VA hospitals with their antiquated equipment, uncaring administrators, and incompetent staff? An answer came in 2003, when the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study that compared veterans health facilities on 11 measures of quality with fee-for-service Medicare. On all 11 measures, the quality of care in veterans facilities proved to be "significantly better."
Here's another curious fact. The Annals of Internal Medicine recently published a study that compared veterans health facilities with commercial managed-care systems in their treatment of diabetes patients. In seven out of seven measures of quality, the VA provided better care.
It gets stranger. Pushed by large employers who are eager to know what they are buying when they purchase health care for their employees, an outfit called the National Committee for Quality Assurance today ranks health-care plans on 17 different performance measures. These include how well the plans manage high blood pressure or how precisely they adhere to standard protocols of evidence-based medicine such as prescribing beta blockers for patients recovering from a heart attack. Winning NCQA's seal of approval is the gold standard in the health-care industry. And who do you suppose this year's winner is: Johns Hopkins? Mayo Clinic? Massachusetts General? Nope. In every single category, the VHA system outperforms the highest rated non-VHA hospitals.
Not convinced? Consider what vets themselves think. Sure, it's not hard to find vets who complain about difficulties in establishing eligibility. Many are outraged that the Bush administration has decided to deny previously promised health-care benefits to veterans who don't have service-related illnesses or who can't meet a strict means test. Yet these grievances are about access to the system, not about the quality of care received by those who get in. Veterans groups tenaciously defend the VHA and applaud its turnaround. "The quality of care is outstanding," says Peter Gayton, deputy director for veterans affairs and rehabilitation at the American Legion. In the latest independent survey, 81 percent of VHA hospital patients express satisfaction with the care they receive, compared to 77 percent of Medicare and Medicaid patients.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html
Every vet I've ever known - which includes a great number of my family - has had nothing but high praise for the healthcare provided by the VA.
AURaptor's Greatest Hits:
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 20:32 To AnthonyT:
Go fuck yourself.
On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you.
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 18:26 To President Obama:
Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar.
Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.
... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
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Yup, me too. My dad was a vet, and swore by it. My half-brother as well. Not hard to have our opinions colored by our experience, but I'll trust the people who do the actual research on a larger scale.
To remind: Privatizing SSI, Medicare and the VA would make all three more expensive to administer. Another "fact" the right doesn't want us to pay attention to. What they want you to hear is that all three are terrible, the government can't make ANYTHING work, and it's costing the taxpayer. Say "it's costing the taxpayer" and "it doesn't work well", and lo, millions of stupid Americans jump; facts are irrelevant.
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
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Both my sister and her husband work for the V.A., she as a dietician, he as a psychiatrist. They both say that the care their patients get is better than what anyone but the richest can get in any private institution.
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The VA has NEVER, I mean NEVER EVER helped me with ANY health problem I've EVER had!!!!
But then, I ain't a Vet....
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Both my sister and her husband work for the V.A., she as a dietician, he as a psychiatrist. They both say that the care their patients get is better than what anyone but the richest can get in any private institution.
Bull Shit. My friend works as a nurse at both St. Francis(Hartford) and the shit VA in Rocky hill, she laughing reading this......Says it is not even close. One has all the supplies, meds, nurses, doctors, rooms, and equipment that it needs to give care without blinking an eye...the other does not. Care to guess?
She has a good point...When is the last time they worked at a private inst. to use as comparison? And what are they supposed to say "we give shitty care to vets"?
Laughable.
****Note****(I am well aware that most of the Muslims in my example are most likely Indian and not Islamic at all, however I choose to ignore the propaganda that there is a difference and clump all rattled tongue speaking sand dwellers together....for the sake of arguement ...You know, If it looks like a duck...)
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Once again: One person's experience doesn't count much against all the reports and research done to publish the state of the VA. My sympathy to your friend, that sucks big time. Doesn't prove your point. The world is not made up of just what you know, believe it or not.
My husband's ex, by the way, works at the VA and has for nearly thirty years. She loves it, and looks down on the nearby hospitals which don't do nearly as good a job.
So let's all compare what we each know individually of the VA hospitals, and I'm sure we can decide the point...who needs experts or to hear from veterans themselves, after all??
Gawd, it's nice Kane came on today to offer his insightful comments...so refreshing. Sorry, but I'm sick to death of the idiots who spout things they know nothing about and call it "fact", then go on to abuse everyone they disagree with. THAT I won't miss for the next couple of days!
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
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