jlf1961
Posts: 14840
Joined: 6/10/2008
From: Somewhere Texas
Status: offline
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To begin with, the problem is not just the VA, so read the entire post to get an over all prospective of the problem.
First of all, and all bullshit aside, do any of you debating this have the first clue as to the motivation for the creation of the department of Veteran's Affairs?
Probably not.
The first thing you need to do is read this.
And as history has proved time and time again, once something becomes a federal agency, what used to work passably well goes down the toilet to become a bureaucratic nightmare.
Let me explain exactly what a vet deals with when approaching the VA for medical benefits.
1) First, a determination has to be made on whether the problem is service or non service related.
If it is service related, the priority for care goes to the top of the list above all others who may be on the list for priority care, which then means that if
it is convenient for the vet to receive care locally, then that procedure is scheduled at the nearest facility best able to administer whatever is needed.
If it is not service related, then the vet is placed on a list, and instructed to go to the nearest VA medical center that can provide such care within a
'reasonable' time frame, not to exceed six months if at all possible.
It does not matter if that VA medical center is in another state and requires a long travel time to get there, or if the vet in question is able due to health able
to make said trip.
If the vet is unable, due to health reasons, unable to make the trip, a determination of that fact has to be made at either the local VA clinic OR a designated health care provider as decided by the VA.
IN OTHER WORDS, the vets primary care physician is deemed unqualified to make the determination.
In fact there was a very accurate movie made about the VA starring Keifer Sutherland called Article 99.
Then of course there is this little tidbit.
If the vet is married to a person with a health plan as provided by an employer, the VA (like medicare) becomes a health plan to cover what is not covered by the spouse's plan, or basically it covers the copay.
Oh, but it gets better.
Say the spouse's plan has a cap for catastrophic medical expenses, then again, a determination has to be made by the VA that such care is necessary AND again that determination has to be made by some other doctor other than the vet's primary care physician.
Which means, the VA can actually send you to a doctor that is not actually working in the field of medicine that is related to the problem in the first place. Kind of like a Social Security disability applicant being sent to an orthopedic specialist to determine if a heart condition warrants being put on disability (and yes it happens, ask my niece who spent 2 months in a cardiac care unit and applied for disability and the Social Security sent her to an orthopedist for her primary complaint dealing with cardiovascular damage.)
Of course, the VA can deny treatment for service related problems for a multitude of reasons.
For example, Senior Master Sargent David F. Hall, sought VA treatment for cancer related to Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War. The VA determined that yes, his cancer was one of the six known to be only caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
However, due to the fact that he had been a smoker since the age of 16, prior to his enlistment in the Air Force, and was a smoker after retiring from the Air Force, it was determined that his choice to smoke was a contributing factor to him developing cancer, even though the cancer he developed was only known to be caused by exposure to one of the compounds in agent orange.
OR how about this nice one.
I suffer combat related PTSD.
The local VA clinic does not have a shrink on staff, so, for me to get the VA to pay for therapy sessions for this problem, I would have to make 2 trips a week to one of two VA centers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, which means four hours ONE way, so basically 8 hours round trip twice a week.
And since I am trying my damnedest to get off disability and actually back in the work force in my preferred field of specialized security, would you like to tell me some major security firm that would hire a guy that is going to be out of the office two days a week, other than some company wanting to hire a rent a cop for minimum wage?
Not that it matters that there are two fully accredited clinics locally that have an exemplary record for treating the same problem using non VA insurance?
Or as I stated in an earlier post, when I needed an arterial by pass in my leg for a non service related problem, I was informed for the VA to treat it, I would have to travel to New Mexico for the surgery and the four day post op hospital stay.
Then there is the West Texas Rehabilitation Center. World class treatment for physical impairments due to birth defects, diseases such as MS and MD, traumatic brain and spine injury, amputations etc.
And the VA will not pay for a vet to go to this facility even though its mission statement is to provide the best quality care regardless of the patients ability to pay. In fact, if you have insurance that requires a copay, West Texas Rehab will not charge the patient for the copay, they take it out of the funds they raise annually from the various fund raising projects that fund the place.
Want another kicker on this place?
This operation has developed some of the now accepted treatments for MS and MD therapy, has made tech breakthroughs in the area of prosthetics for children and adults, and established procedures for rehabilitation used world wide for traumatic injury disabilities.
But its not good enough for the VA to use, even though the VA now uses some of the techniques developed by this operation.
One of the local hospitals, and one of the leading training hospitals in the state for interns and residents even went so far as to offer their facility to the VA for treatment of Veterans and asked only for the VA to cover the cost of the expanded administrative staff that would be necessary.
The reason for this offer was simple, locally the military retirement community is about 75% of the total retirees in the area.
The VA declined the offer for two reasons:
1) The hospital in question is not part of an established University or college medical school
and
2) The hospital in question is primarily owned by a charity foundation established by one of the oldest families in the county, and thus not subject to the same regulations as a Government or University/College medical center as to funding and patient fees.
Then lets look at the current active duty medical care....
Dyess Air Force Base has 400 bed hospital on the base, with a state of the art Trauma Center.
The trauma center has a minimal staff that can triage and stabilize patients prior to sending them to the local hospitals for care and further treatment.
Why?
Because the rest of the hospital on the base is EMPTY... well except for a fully teched out Radiology center with techs only trained to use the x ray machine, the ct scanner and MRI machine was put in place but never hooked up.
A complete surgery center goes un used.
The hospital was closed three months AFTER a 25 million dollar renovation project was completed, part of the Bill Clinton's push to upgrade all military medical centers to modern standards, and one of the last units to be worked on and finished, in 2004.
Hell there is multi million dollar medical equipment (well in 2003/4 it was) still sitting in crates in the hospital warehouse.
And guess what?
Prior to it closing, it was a fully accredited VA medical center as well as an active duty military hospital.
In 2007, foundations were poured to expand the facility to 600 beds and add a nuclear medicine facility. Kind of neat when you visit the open air aircraft museum and drive by the building looking at a huge concrete pad that would have been the new wing being used by the kids living in base housing as a skate park.
So, the base personnel have to go to the local hospitals and doctors when a fully operational, yet empty, facility is less than 3 minutes from base housing.
And why is it closed?
It was closed as part of the congressional military appropriations committee recommendation that led to the combining of the Walter Reed Army hospital and Bethesda Navy hospital as well as the cut backs at the Fort Sam Houston medical center and medical training base.
All in all, there are 300 modernized military hospitals with full equipment that once served as VA hospitals sitting EMPTY around this country.
So, it is not just the Vets who are suffering from inadequate medical care, but active duty personnel and dependents.
Did you know that many wounded military personnel who were medevaced out of Afghanistan for the states spent MONTHS at various military hospitals in Germany and Europe WAITING for space at the Walter Reed/Bethesda Medical center for advanced critical treatment?
All the photo ops of sitting presidents visiting wounded troops in those hospitals were staged so the news crews did not get video of the hundreds of beds in hallways of those hospitals.
And why is this?
Because we, the American people, elected men and women to go to Washington who never wore a uniform or even tried to enlist, and make decisions for the care of our active duty troops and vets.
I love it when I hear "thank you for your service" because while the people are more than willing to thank us, they are less than willing to take care of vets or even active duty personnel who took a bullet so they can sit in front of a TV and watch MTV, or some bullshit staged reality tv show and guzzle beer.
And then we have the question:
Why dont the GOP want to take care of the vets?
The real question is "why dont the American people give a fuck about some poor grunt who slogged around carrying a weapon because the rest of us pansy ass shits felt they were better and not wear the same uniform?"
Instead of saying thank you, how about picking up a couple months of my shrink bills for the therapy I need to deal with the shit I went through so you didnt have to?
_____________________________
Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think?
You cannot control who comes into your life, but you can control which airlock you throw them out of.
Paranoid Paramilitary Gun Loving Conspiracy Theorist AND EQUAL OPPORTUNI
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RE: Why does the GOP oppose Veterans' health care? - 
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