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Veterans Administration looking to redirect billions of dollars to private health car

Jim_S

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
January 13, 2019
Veterans Administration looking to redirect billions of dollars to private health care
By Rick Moran
A
https://www.americanthinker.com/blo...llions_of_dollars_to_private_health_care.html

The Veterans Administration is preparing to significantly change the way that our veterans recieve health care. The agency is planning to redirect billions of dollars from government run facilities into the private health care sector.

New York Times:

Under proposed guidelines, it would be easier for veterans to receive care in privately run hospitals and have the government pay for it. Veterans would also be allowed access to a system of proposed walk-in clinics, which would serve as a bridge between V.A. emergency rooms and private providers, and would require co-pays for treatment.

Veterans’ hospitals, which treat seven million patients annually, have struggled to see patients on time in recent years, hit by a double crush of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and aging Vietnam veterans. A scandal over hidden waiting lists in 2014 sent Congress searching for fixes, and in the years since, Republicans have pushed to send veterans to the private sector, while Democrats have favored increasing the number of doctors in the V.A.

If put into effect, the proposed rules — many of whose details remain unclear as they are negotiated within the Trump administration — would be a win for the once-obscure Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy group funded by the network founded by the billionaire industrialists Charles G. and David H. Koch, which has long championed increasing the use of private sector health care for veterans.

Is this good news for our veterans? Clearly, something had to be done to reform a system that was failing to deliver timely and quality health care to our veterans. The VA's failures have been an ongoing travesty and government interia only made the problems worse.

But some Republicans are concerned. It is likely that private care for veterans will be more expensive than government and that there is less oversight in sending veterans to private facilities. This presents greater opportunities for fraud and abuse of the system. There is also the issue of finding competent doctors to treat military-specific conditions like PTSD and injuries most doctors don't see in the private sector.

The VA's dismal performance in recent years makes those concerns almost trivial. It's unknown how many veterans have died as a result of being on waiting lists for years, but the number is significant. There is a feeling that if the VA can't deliver basic services in a timely manner to all veterans, reaching out to the private sector is the only option.

Few advocates want the VA completely privatized. But this change should go a long way toward addressing some of the problems that have plagued the agency for at least the last decade.
 

road squawker

Active member
GOLD Site Supporter
I really don't understand why people are being treated at the V.A. for NON service related "injuries".

Flame suit on...........
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
I really don't understand why people are being treated at the V.A. for NON service related "injuries".

Flame suit on...........

Because they served their country and they qualify.
My Dad was career Navy, as were two of my uncles.
All had non-service related diseases--/lung cancer, heart, diabetes.
Dad wanted to be treated at the VA hospital and was 1 week before he passed at home on hospice.
I was one of his nurses.
There ya go.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
I really don't understand why people are being treated at the V.A. for NON service related "injuries".

Flame suit on...........

No flames. One opinion would be because we earned it. Military service can be a sacrifice one gives in many ways. I was very blessed & fortunate in that my sacrifices were from a monetary standpoint and not injuries or even death. Nuff said bout that.

Because they served their country and they qualify.
My Dad was career Navy, as were two of my uncles.
All had non-service related diseases--/lung cancer, heart, diabetes.
Dad wanted to be treated at the VA hospital and was 1 week before he passed at home on hospice.
I was one of his nurses.
There ya go.

Was the lung cancer asbestos related? As you are aware, I am sure, Navy vets stand a much higher risk of Meso. Scary stuff.

In regard to the concerns in the OP, one would think that maybe service related issues such as PTSD stay within the VA universe while non service related issues be turned over to private care. Again, just my humble opinion.

Not to turn this into a VA bashing thread, but just the fact that all this is being considered is NOT a good omen for government run health care in general. It speaks volumes that despite all the so called attempts to fix the VA, the fact of the matter is the government is still way to incompetent to effectively run a health care system that even remotely resembles what we get in the private sector.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
No Butch, Dad's lung cancer was not asbestos related.
However, he often talked of how cigarettes were issued back in those days.
They stopped issuing with rations during or after 'nam.
 
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Danang Sailor

nullius in verba
GOLD Site Supporter
VA Health Care -- Retirees and service connected issues only! That has been my opinion since l-o-n-g before I began my service career.
The VA is not the place to treat a guy who served in Korea and then lost a leg in 1999 because he decided to use a chainsaw while loaded to the gills with cheap bourbon! :hammer:
 

Lenny

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
VA is a benefit people agree to when they join the Military. Heck, if politicians can get a lot better care after one term in office, I don't see why not. Most of the Veterans who use the facilities are low income and homeless. Refugees, welfare people and illegals get free medical, so it makes sense to me that those who served our country should have that benefit.
 
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