what in the heck is happening? if admiral dr jackson had any brains he would have not accepted the position. he may be a "nice" guy, he may be an "excellent" physician, but he seems "clueless" to think he is qualified for this spot.
1
Nothing less that a slap in the face to our veterans, who did THEIR job, in the reasonable expectation that the government would, in turn, keep ITS promises to THEM and do its job in terms of providing services and care later on.
And, as usual, a move pushed by draft-dodging and service-evading chicken hawks! (It's SO easy to opine about what's "good" for veterans when neither you nor your family has any contact whatsoever with the consequences!)
This should be one area where people and politicians should unite-- across party or ideological lines -- and DEMAND that the VA and the government keep its promises to the vets and honor its commitments! Let's hold the feet of those who'd "privatize" veterans' service to a hot, hot fire of public scrutiny, demand for action, and clear consequences in the polls to those who'd shortchange out veterans!
Taking care of our veterans is what some of the (ballooning) military budget SHOULD go for -- both for reasons of honor, decency, and national security.
And what's the real motive for this "privatization"? Windfall profits for connected cronies and profiteering "service providers"! Simply obscene!
2
The problems the VA has in providing health care stem from 50% of veterans using PTSD to scam the taxpayer. No private system can handle the 1-2 million veterans that are applying for it or that are receiving an early, full benefits living from it. Oh, lets not forget how they howled when asked to repay the combat pay for just working desk jobs. Stop this 9/11 induced extreme veneration.
Donald Trump is president. What is going to happen, is going to happen. Just make sure it does not happen to you. And I speak as a former VA employee.
It is disgusting that we should be having this conversation at all. Have we become so callous, so uncaring, so driven by ideology that we would not honor the most basic commitment -- aid and comfort -- to all those who fought for our country? Have we forgotten what President Lincoln's admonition " “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.".
Is not this administration ashamed?
2
Family doctor here, 28 years in the game. My medical group has no interest in becoming a location of choice for former VA patients. These folks frequently have drug abuse and psycho-social issues that we don't have the resources to address. The administrative hassles involved with dealing with the VA are simply intolerable. My partner had to get approval from the VA to prescribe the standard antibiotic like azithromycin for a veteran with bronchitis. Just nuts.
Plus the VA takes months and months to pay us. And we're already full up with regular patients.
VA hospitals and clinics need to stay open. The private section can't absorb these patients and doesn't want to.
3
Are the Las Vegas Oct 1 "military-weapon" shooting victims allowed to access the specialized "military-class" wound care facilities available to our veterans? Are those Oct 1 Las Vegas shooting victims forced to get inferior care from doctors less familiar with treating such horrific bodily damages? Why deny any American access to the best and most appropriate health care possible wherever it may be? Why do we have segregation in our health care system? Remember, you can't choose the wrong health plan when there is only ONE.
1
The Koch brothers' perpetual goal is to reduce the role of government and the need to pay taxes to support it. The Koch/GOP privatization plan to move care for our veterans to the private health care system is a terrible injustice for veterans with health care needs. All anti-government ideologues should be stopped from wreaking havoc on our V.A. health care delivery system.
The VA is the largest hospital/ healthcare system in the nation, and is the close working model to a single payer health insurance system. The V.A. is the only system that negotiates directly with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices, and is a comprehensive resource for veterans seeking all types of care: mental health, physical health issues, physicians/medicine/ nursing,social services,social work, clinical social work and clinical psychology. VA is a great example of the public sector working well by providing quality care for the people that use it, and it saves lives.
A 2016 RAND Corporation analysis found that the VA provides good quality care, usually in a timely manner. The VA cares for some of our sickest patients with the best results at the lowest cost with the highest patient satisfaction.The key to maintain & improve V.A. healthcare and social services is to fully support, fund and staff the VA.
It's time for us to elect government stewards who care for and will act on behalf of all of us, including our veterans, and not just on behalf of their .001% wealthy friends & donors.
4
Yes folks let us have that battle scarred veteran suffering from PTSD go see your typical Marcus Welby general practitioner whose speciality is lancing boils who will in turn will refer that veteran to a psychologist whose speciality is treating kiddies with the terrible twos and see how that works out for everyone.
Got to hand it the GOP and Donald Trump who “thank” veterans for their service by having them be treated by the “best” that our private healthcare system can offer.
1
Recipe for disaster? One-size-fits-all "healthcare" to crush customization, innovation, and personal responsibity. For added measure throw in "service connections" of several thousand dollars monthly and associated mental "diagnoses" (or that weasel word "disorders") to finish off any last trace of productivity and self respect. Well intentioned idiocy. We have out-Sovieted the Soviet Union in centralized economies and the VA may be the best example. We need systematic change, not rearranged deckchairs, on the SS Titanic.
I am a 100% disabled veteran. The best thing the government can do with the VA is end it. 300,000 employees and a budget of more than $150 billion and the wait times are still obscene. I fell and dislocated my shoulder two weeks before Christmas. It took them two months to get me into to see an orthopedic surgeon and another month for physical therapy. My shoulder has gradually gotten better on its own, but with no help from the VA. Several years ago I was in extreme pain from a persistent back injury and could not get an appointment at the VA, not at my local clinic and not at the VA hospital in Denver. Eventually I had to call my congressman to get an appointment. For those of you who think the VA is so wonderful, when was the last time you had to contact a congressman to get an appointment just to see a doctor? End the VA's involvement with medicine and for the love of God give us actual medical insurance so we can see competent medical personnel.
1
Lots of comments — here is one solution.
>Lease VA Health Services facilities to regional health care providers — bid process.
>Serve only veterans at leased VA Health Services facilities.
>Regional lease holder is responsible for managing health/administrative staff, health services planning, budget planning, and maintenance/capital planning of leased facilities
>VA hospital employees remain federal employees.
>VA Health Administration keeps control of, and responsible for veteran's health care outcomes.
>Veterans to receive service at any regional provider facility.
>Use Medicare reimbursement rates for payment of medical services provided.
>For medical services quality assurance and fraud detection use JCAH, VA hospital teams, VA Inspector General, Justice Dept. etc.
The above strategy is a complex approach to improving access to health care for veterans that avoids the pitfalls of privatizing VA Health Services that leverages the expertise of large health care systems and allows the dedicated and capable employees of VA Health Services to continue to serve our Nations veterans.
It can be done if the white collar criminals from both parties are voted out of office.
The Choice privatization program at the VA has been nothing less of a disaster. Private doctors care nothing for VA clients except as a quick temporary source of cash. So they will do what makes them money not what is good for the veteran - and they will fail to communicate the results back to the VA primary care physicians because that is just a waste of time. At the same time they will charge way more than similar care would have cost to provide in-house at a VA facility. The even bigger tragedy is that the wait time maximums that have been instituted for VA facilities are not applied to to the private contractors. So a VA facility gets in big trouble if they don't see a veteran within 30 days - whereas the 90 days wait in the private sector is accepted without questions. A VA doctor who don't have an appointment until 35 days later can be forced to send the patient to an outside doctor who can see him in 3 months. There is one and only one purpose of "Choice": to allow the private sector to rip off government and provide substandard care to our veterans. I hope they soon will demand an end to this farce.
4
it's absurd to ruin VA Health Care system built not only on tax dollars but suffering of hundreds of thousands of veterans who did not get what they needed when VA was in transition to the present stage.
A tweet and (likely ) end of an institution built on the blood and the suffering of poeple who have sacrificed their everything.
Mr. President, please wakeup before you destroy the foundation of another every institution.
3
To put the issue bluntly, and simply, Concerned Veterans for America wants to make money on the medical services now provided to all veterans. Our pain & nightmares, their profits.
USN 1967 - 71
Viet Nam 1968
5
Bait and switch? When you enlist there is a contract. You serve, and the government will provide health care. Breach of contract? Why would anyone enlist in the future?
6
Given the fog over why Dr. Shulkin was fired, it remains to be seen as to whether he improved the VA.
But the debate over privatizing the VA overlooks decades of deteriorating VA service, and too many cases of the VA being the employer of last resort for incompetent physicians and psychiatrists.
Sure, many of today's VA patients are grateful for the care they receive, but during the Vietnam War, it was common to hear soldiers dread more the thought of being so badly wounded as to be sent to a VA hospital, than to be killed or successfully treated for minor battlefield wounds.
2
Affording choice to veterans when they have access issues through lack of geographic coverage by the VA or long waiting periods for specialty needs makes sense. The issue is a lack of trust engendered by this Administration's disdain for the role of government in multiple areas. Devos at education, Pruitt at EPA, Carson at HUD are all in their own ways dismantling their own departments. Tillerson at State through an unprecedented 30% downsizing initiative and not filling hundreds of positions made our foreign policy the sole purview of the President through his twitter feed. The veterans organizations that are expressing concern have simply been paying attention to what this administration has done. Discredit, dismantle, denigrate the government they control. Scary stuff.
8
Great idea. Inject a profit motive into veterans care, skim off some of the valuable resources and enrich more of the 0.1%. Brilliant.
4
By the time the billionaires are done with us, we won't be able to AFFORD a constitution.
3
The VA is underfunded. This underfunding was predicted in 2005. Analysis of the data on the casualty and fatality rates for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq showed that many fewer service men were dying but many more were surviving with long-term disabilities. There were heroic efforts by the medical arms of the Army, Air Force and Navy to save lives - and they were far more successful than in any previous war. These efforts were known that the VA would have incredible demands placed on them as these veterans transitioned from the military medical care systems to the VA system. We are now seeing those predictions come true.
The VA Medical system has expertise and skills in a variety of areas which are not available in the private sector except at a limited number of university hospitals. In areas such as orthopedics, burns, reconstructive surgery and neurology (to name just a few) the VA provides care that excels the private sector. Nearly every VA hospital in an urban area that has a medical school has an affiliation with that program and the affiliated teaching hospitals.
I never served in the US military - I was in the US Public Health Service. Many of the students whom I taught went into the VA and the the military medical services.
The VA provides more high quality care than can be purchased from the private health care system using the same budget. This is especially true in the areas of long-term care for aging veterans and veterans living in rural areas.
4
The Veterans are in for a great shock, ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT VOTED FOR HIM! His so called support for the VETs was just like the Photo OP with the FLA students. He cannot be trusted. The people wanting privatization see $$$$ sign in their future. Big dollar donors, SWAMP FEVER IS IN THE MAKING!
4
I've always been happy with my care and experiences at the VA in Wichita. When I needed a referral for privatized services, it happened promptly. I have always been able to see my primary care physician within a day or two of calling. I have always been treated with respect, dignity, and never had extensive wait times. The good care that I have received will never make Foxnews. It seems that conservative leaning groups seek out the worst experiences, and apply them to the broader array of care that veterans receive. It is obvious that the VA has had recent problems, but they have made recent strides, partly because of Mr. Shulkin. With all the pcp shortages, lack of access to care, mental health needs, and unqiue needs of veterans, I would be hesitant to move to a scenario that does not dedicate or guarantee resources to veterans. Keep the VA and use privitized resoucres when necessary.
5
The message is clear. If possible avoid serving. If you must serve to pay for college avoid all high risk assignments. Privatization will reduce the VA to the level of internet service providers, with more dire consequences
2
The administration is clearly doing the bidding of the Koch Brothers here. If they were really that concerned with misuse of taxpayer dollars, Ben Carson would have been fired for his custom–made furniture weeks ago. And not a word wasted on the Millions spent transporting and keeping the Criminal–in–Chief and his entourage at Trump–owned resorts every weekend. A Kleptocracy in action, and they are shameless about it.
9
Privatization is what Putin and his pals did with government enterprises in Russia.Trump can spin the VA off and give it to his pals tor free and keep a chunk for himself. Everybody who matters wins.
4
Year after year, polls show that a clear majority of the American people (around 60-65%) support Medicare for all, and yet Trump, who promised that he had a "great" healthcare plan and that we would be "so happy" with it, as it would insure even more Americans than Obamacare all while curbing cost increases even more ... now supports doing the exact opposite and even destroying veterans' healthcare too.
Once again, he clearly cares about only one thing: making the GOP's wealthiest donors great again, no matter how much it destroys what ordinary citizens care about and want to keep or see improved.
The GOP has become the anti-veteran party - after having already become the anti-fiscal responsibility party.
And yes, that's bad, because a democracy can only thrive if there are at least TWO serious political parties, rather than one serious party and a second one that has now definitively caved to cronyism and systematical corruption!
5
This is just the beginning. Our boy Speaker's goal has always been to privatize Medicare, and the real goal for Medicaid is that it disappear. No one's saying the VA doesn't have problems, Maybe David Shulkin was doing too good a job.
5
It would be grand if people who NEVER served...get their paws out of my VA healthcare issues.
It would be grand if people who NEVER served...allowed themselves to NOT chime into issues that don't concern them.
It would be grand if people who NEVER served...allowed themselves to let veterans take care of veterans, not any Koch brother or their ilk for profit.
32
Left high and dry after the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the GOP Congress did not fund the VA's psychological sections nor prosthetic centers, now the Pretend King Trump who bashed a hero (McCain) wants to milk our veterans their last drop of money.
Veterans do have to pay some cost to use the VA. The VA is the largest government funded healthcare system which is why the GOP fears it. Republicans do not want the VA to work otherwise we would all want national healthcare. Privatizing the VA would leave millions of veterans homeless and out on the street. Republicans learned from Vietnam not to use the draft to fight their profit Wars but did not realize that medical breakthroughs allowed more wounded not to die and return. Now they want them to just pass into the sunset.
Well wrong answer. Veterans have gone to War, have protected us and died in their sleep (Beirut), millions are dealing with PTSD (recently found to be connected to physical brain damage), have endured homelessness and a VA that cannot help them.
Veterans feel the pinch of closing off access to medical and psychological care already. Privatizing psychological care would be slamming the door on them, most cannot afford a bus ticket to the VA. This is a scam but worse it will be the death of our veterans whom we owe so much.
8
It's IMPOSSIBLE for our veterans - or any other Americans - to choose the wrong health plan when there is only ONE.
Having picked all home equity clean, and now buying life insurance policies and promoting reverse mortgages—having drained all wealth from existing and future generations of the bottom 75%—oligarchs now salivate over the hundred-billion-dollar budgets of the VA, Social Security, and the public school system.
We've never been in a place like this. Age of the Robber Barons pales in comparison. Congress shows no sign of aid.
Come, November. Hurry.
9
GOP Indictment of the VA:
1. Serves low and middle income Americans with skill and dignity.
2. Does not funnel wealth to those who need it the least.
3. Keeps priceless land parcels off limits to developers.
4. Funds higher education.
5. Honors those who have served with real support, as opposed to flags and talk.
12
Dr. Jackson may be a highly skilled clinician, but he is no match for the Kook brothers, Charles and David. Wherever large quantities of public funds satisfy a personal need, you will find the most rapacious energy from wealthy predators whose chief objective is to acquire a significant portion of that public wealth. Medical care for veterans is of zero interest to them; it's all about the economies of scale they will bring to the delivery of services and garner for themselves the profitable fruits of their delivery system. The very nature of capitalism demands it by its inexorable requirement to race to the price bottom while siezing maximum profit. Physicians, nurses, technicians, social workers, and those who are personally invested in care giving are but little cogs in the profit-making machine; their patients, veterans, even smaller cogs since they are viewed as takers. When this nightmare comes to pass, and veterans are betrayed by poor care, denied care, indifference, malfeasance, and worse, Charles and David will point to the administrators, medical practitioners, and employees for blame while counting their money and sniffing for more.
7
I mean, how could anyone possibly say that profit margin would take more of a precedent to providing care to veterans?
(Smh)
1
I am a 100% disabled veteran and totaly against privatization of the VETERANS ADMINISTRATIOIN! I get the best care possible in one place with no for profit insurance co. determining my medical choices. You better not destroy my VA Trumph or you will have some pretty angry warriors on your trail!
33
Have any of the Koch brothers served in the military?
9
Shulkin getting fired because he used taxpayer money for travel is ludicrous.
Trump and family use our taxpayer money every single weekend to go to
Mar-a-lago.
Wake up people.
13
Veterans overwhelmingly voted for Trump. The Draft Dodger in Charge is in the process of making America veterans great again; I see absolutely no cause for complaint. Even if it's been blown off, vets don't have a leg to stand on.
Vets helped elect a man of no (not low) character, without honor, whose brain is a scrambled egg; now, they want protection from his policies. No thank you; they absolutely deserve their desert of hair and sand mixed with salacious speech by the tongue of a clown with a long spoon.
3
There are plenty of vets who didn’t vote for Trump, I’m one and I know many others. No one deserves what the Koch Brothers are offering.
5
Their sacrifice to serve our country wasn't private and their healthcare shouldn't be either. The guys who want to make it private never sacrificed anything for our country.
32
i have never understood who (or whom) the VA serves. There were two WWII Vets in my family who never received anything from the VA healthcare system -- through open heart surgery, strokes, extensive end of life home health care not covered by Medicare (not to mention a widow who went practically bankrupt paying for her own end of life "assisted living"). They all paid it themselves one way or another. So I have always assumed these people in VA hospitals were the career military people who spent their whole lives in the military, not people who spent 3 or 4 years driving tanks around Europe, who were getting care from the VA system. But then I don't understand that Tricare system under which some Vets seem to get low cost lifetime Blue Cross for themselves and their families. Why are they getting that and not going to VA hospitals?
On an only semirelated topic, I often wonder if anyone has done any studies on why (or whether it's just a misperception) veterans of more recent wars (like roughly everything from Vietnam up from our current wars in the middle east and Afghanistan) seem to have so many more medical issues in their young and middle aged years than vets of earlier wars, like WWII? As a child and young person, I don't recall hearing all the complaints I hear these days not only about illnesses and (especially) mental illnesses but also lack of jobs, lack of housing, etc.
2
I was not career, 3 years of honorable service only. Only because private industry forced me into early retirement with no way to pay for the health insurance I had while working, I became eligible for VA care.
2
If you don't know who the VA serves, all you need to do is go down to the closest VA hospital or clinic and just walk inside. You will find everyone from young soldiers who have fought in Iraq to old geezers like me who have fought in Nam. There are even Korean and WWII vets getting care.
You seem "clueless" as to the needs of servicemen and women. If you have served in the military you wouldn't be posting uninformed comments, you would be thanking your lucky stars for the VA.
3
We support our troops, and we thank you for your service.
Now, show me the money!
1
Offering a private option for basic services to veterans living hundreds of miles from VA hospitals would solve much of the "access problem". It would be expensive - but only at the margin.
Ironically, the large existing or to-be-created private corporations licking their chops over the prospect of a giant guaranteed federal government revenue stream are eying the VA in metropolitan areas, where they can scale up rapidly for maximum profits. The last thing on their mind is delivering high marginal cost care to a veteran living in a log cabin in Montana.
So you could end up with the private sector taking over the lucrative urban/suburban piece, and the government left with the rural piece with the high cost to serve.
That would be like if the US Post Office abandoned all cities to UPS and Federal Express and left us taxpayers to subsidize the high cost rural piece.
6
I would be happy if the US Post Office abandoned all cities to the UPS and Federal Express. Service where I live (zip 10017) couldn't be much worse than it already is -- and I include in that description times when I have no choice but to seek window service at Grand Central Station 10017, where I get to wait in line 30-40 minutes to be "served" by a seriously passive aggressive clerk who was probably transferred there as punishment for having been bad somewhere else.
We city dwellers in places like zip 10017 are ALREADY subsidizing all the people in the empty states who refuse to to give up some post offices. Nothing would change in that regard, but by getting UPS or FedEx in we might get some better service for ourselves.
Yes, and that's exactly what has happened. The post office will deliver one piece of paper to a veteran in a cabin at a high cost, and the privates continue milking the easy stuff at high profit; then the American people whine why can not the post office be like the that too. What's that saying, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of...
1
"20 Million Americans" do not receive VA "care." Most of the 19 million American veterans have no relationship at all with the VA, which does provide health care for about 9 million vets, including retired career personnel.
The VA has given this combat vet excellent care and service.
12
The Republican MO is to under fund and under staff a socialized service so infrastructure becomes bad enough they can then point at it as failure that would be better run as a private endeavor with public money. Then they (their friends, campaign donors, and family) can siphon off our tax dollars via profit taking. It is what the local Fepublicans have been trying to do with public education in Utah since the mid 1990's, what they are trying to do with our roads (they just successfully passed a toll road law), and what they did to the state prison here in Utah.
16
Why does it seem that the entire GOP and the money behind them can only conceive of making a profit on what should be a nonpartisan social justice issue for our country and our Vets? What kind of country have we become? Regular people are clamoring for affordable health care, some kind of fair equitable system such as medicare, and yet, every step of the way, since the GOP seized control, starting with monetizing/privatizing the VA to killing the ACA by a million small stabs, we the people are left exposed to the greed and apparent willingness of the GOP to go alone with what ever corporate man (usually) who has the president's ear. Never for the good of the country, never for the good of regular people, always always for the 1%, How do we fight this? Vote them out in 2018. Enough is enough, as our teenage wise people are saying.
9
Dr. Shulkin is dismissed for his use of government funds for personal travel, but the director of the EPA is given a free pass??
17
Why do this? Because that’s where the Big Money is to spread around amongst friends.
5
My family doctor runs a large practice using RN's and PA's. I haven't seen my doctor in years, and the nurses aren't qualified to treat the flu. Its the same for my son and his partner. They both see PA's,,,rarely see a physician. These veterans who have medical problems will not have better access than the rest of us. They'll be seen by RN's too. They are better off with the VA health system.
6
The probably see CNAs, Certified Nursing Assistants.
1
The privatization of all public services is not a new idea; it is a decades-old Republican goal. The idea of government money being spent without middlemen (Republican consituencies all) getting their cut of public revenues is repulsive to them. If they can succeed in privatizing the VA, next will be Medicare (vouchers), and finally social security (mandatory private investment accounts where financial advisors with no fiduciary duty can charge fees). If the VA is privatized, it would be one more step on the way to a kleptocracy.
11
Should privatisation come to pass, what would become of the facilities that the VA now maintains, including what seem to be new, belated facilities in Denver, Las Vegas, and New Orleans, all over time and over budget.
The hospital in Denver is opening three years late and enormously over a budget that began as $700 million and is winding down, with some areas not complete, at a cost in the billions. Does anyone know how much over budget these regional centers will be, even as our veteran population dwindles?
Many veterans lack access to care, and some--I know several locally--have relocated in order to access what I'm told is an excellent facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming. These are mostly Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan vets; the population from Korea and WWII is dwindling.
Could the VA contract with local hospitals to serve local veterans where the nearest VA is more than 120 miles away?
If we privatize the VA, what happens to its facilities? Will they be sold? Are they sufficiently specialized that finding private buyers would be difficult to impossible?
I agree that VA scholarships for medical (and nursing!) school, or reimbursement, would make sense and improve constant staff shortages that make VA care spotty.
But a department run by a physician who burbled on about the great health of our overweight, elderly, and iill informedt president inspires no confidence at all.
6
Privatization of the VA system is the first domino. After that, Medicare, Madicaid, and Social Security. ALEC wants to get its agenda in place. Look at the privatized prison system. Costs more, performs worse.
9
We are already headed that way. I don't know about Medicaid, but Medicare is already making it much more difficult to get certain types of care (like physical therapy following an accident). Hospitals don't want to give up the Medicare market, but to keep the business they agree to very low reimbursements and force patients out before they can create losses, with people often leaving with inadequate discharge instructions and arrangements for aftercare. Providers of outpatient care, in my experience, try to come up with some form of standardized "model" of care for all people on Medicare, again to try to cut losses on this group.
My advice to people young enough to still be working and saving for retirement is that they should plan to save 50% more than they thought they would need, plus have an emergency money market fund of at least $200,000 when retirement starts to cover all the medical, dental, home care, etc. expenses that they will be required to cover themselves because, whether there is privatization or not, they sure aren't going to be covered by Social Security or Medicare, and as tax benefits go to the top 1 or 2% they won't be getting much of a tax break for such expenses.
Also, if you are middle class, get out of big cities like New York, where all the attention will continued to be focused on the upper and lower classes.
1
Trump knows best. He’s a veteran of the reality show wars.
5
The public health of a nation must never, ever be placed in the hands of a private corporation. That is surely sowing the seeds of despair.
9
Is there anything this administration won't do to make money?
9
If you haven't experienced VA care, you don't have a dog in this fight. Don't make comments about VA care based on lurid headlines.
My husband is a 100% service connected disabled veteran. All his care comes from VA facilities. He did have a couple of instances where he did not receive the best of care about 10-12 years ago, but since then, they have been fantastic. Because we travel a lot, he has received care in multiple VA's across the nation, and with one exception, he would go back to any of them. Once in an emergency situation, he got in immediately to the Phoenix VA and received stellar treatment. Right after that, the horrid stories came out about the "waiting lists" and people dying before they could see a doctor. We can only speak to our experience. He needed care. He got it immediately.
Because of his status as a 100% DV, I also received my care at VA hospitals participating in the CITI program. I had my knee replaced under VA care. They were terrific.
With the talk of privatization, they have developed something called Veteran's Choice. My husband has dealt with it a few times, and it has been a nightmare! He now refuses to use Veteran's Choice and will wait, if necessary, for a VA appointment.
Improve what we have, which for the most part is good. Don't throw the baby out with the Veteran's Choice bathwater.
25
I find it interesting that Congress approves Billions of dollars for warfare to ensure military success but has trouble approving money for when our veterans come back home? Moreover, the VA needs a 'drastic reform' with the help of a McKinsey consulting team to ensure our veterans receive excellent care in a timely fashion!
Why does Congress support 'war' but not the 'warrior'?
5
Seriously??? make up your mind, Vets.
Do you want more government or less government? Less government means private. So deal with it, since most of you voted for it/him & what the Kochs represent.
Should have thought about it before hitting that button in the voting booth.
2
Is it known if any of these veterans groups advised their members how to vote in 2016? I really hope that these brave men and women were not influenced to vote for this draft-dodging backtracker who has no clue as to what their sacrifice feels like.
6
The Koch brothers are relentless in their never-ending greed. I think they want to privatize everything. Privatization is just a euphemism for profiteering, with Charles and David Koch (already worth some $90 billion) standing at the head of the line, claws ready.
5
Privatizing veteran medical care would be a godsend to veterans. VA (hospitals) represent a relic of the past. Sadly but predictably, VA (hospitals) have become a government boondoggle mechanism to employ the unemployable. One only need visit any VA (hospital) and compare same with private sector (hospitals). The difference is mind boggling. The status quo is the past. Veterans deserve choice. Let VA (hospitals) expire, be replaced with competent private providers.
4
Nonsense. I’ve had nothing but quality care at the VA for 27 years. I suspect you’ve never even seen in a VA facility and are just repeating Con cons you’ve heard from Right Wing fraud artists. We don’t need the V.A. wrecked, hands off.
4
As a veteran who has access to both the VA hospital and an HMO, I can't disagree with you more. When I have a choice, I use the VA, because everything works in harmony. The VA is concerned about my health. My HMO is concerned about their profits.
8
And exactly how is replacing VA hospitals with private sector hospitals increasing choice ... ?
What veterans deserve above all is the healthcare they choose to have. And apparently, when you ask them an overwhelming majority chooses to keep the current system (and improve it) rather than get rid of the VA and force them to go to the private sector market.
End of the discussion, no ... ?
2
I'm a 75-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran. The VA saved my life in the 1990s when I was an inch away from suicide. There is no way the private hospitals in the Seattle area can come close to the depth and scale of the treatment that is provided for tens of thousands of us at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Seattle. Go visit this hospital, as I do often. Walk around, it's open. Look at the crowds of elderly, maimed, destitute, distraught men and women waiting in the lobbies and hallways. They have nowhere else to go. They were soldiers. Their lives were disrupted by the wars your politicians voted for. Run this place for profit? Give it to the Koch Brothers?
15
Privatization is not at all about improving health care for veterans, it is about improving the wealth of the already wealthy.
Universal health care would eliminate the need for the V.A. to provide health care for veterans. The V.A. could then concentrate on other quality of life issues.
That's right - Universal Health Care.
14
Don't you just love how they call it 'privatization' but its profits all stem from public tax dollars?
It's just another attempt at massive wealth transfer from all the rest of us to a privileged few. Only this time, they're using veterans as the means instead of children, the poor, or the disabled.
While related to IT and not Healthcare for veterans, this is a perfect example of how privatization is working in the U.S. Since 2000, there has been an overall trend to pass more and more functionality to private IT companies and contractors instead of relying on internal resources. This was sold as a means of "saving money through privatization." Based on BLS statistics gathered from 2007-2015, the reality is that we as taxpayers pay approximately 35-50% more per unit work done than if we'd just hired all those same IT personnel directly by the government (even if we paid them the same salaries with full government benefits) with only marginal improvements in stability and functionality (and most the result of improvements in technology, not management and process). I see a similar trend here. We'll end up paying significantly more for healthcare for vets, with less oversight and less actual care for the veterans.
20
I have spoken to vets in south Florida, they are afraid to go to the VA because they kill too many people. Having a choice through say tri care for common health issues is a good idea. Now of course they can choose VA care and it should be the best that we can attain.
What happened to all of Trump’s talk about how much he cares about the vets? In truth, he cares about himself, period. He cares about his family and friends also, but, only to the extent that they can do something for him.
The vets? They (we) can do nothing for him, so , we’re ciphers.
A few months into his term, I told friends who had voted for him, that I expected he’d go after the VA at some point. They all replied, “oh no...he loves the veterans. He’d never go after the VA”.
Guess again.
19
I am a vet from Nam era, I am terrified as to the future. The VA worked great for me, what is the problem?
5
Trump's true attitude towards veterans crept out when he attacked John McCain - for being a loser because he had been a POW. I presume he regards getting injured as losing as well. Or for that matter serving in the Armed Services - a stable genius like himself got out of it, after all.
4
It's hard to know exactly what "privatization" would mean for the VA. (Though maybe the Koch brothers have a detailed plan.)
One concern is that the entire US healthcare system is overburdened now, including a shortage of primary care doctors and the closing of rural hospitals. Shutting VA facilities and sending veterans into private care will add to the pressure. It's shameful that vets have to wait for care, but there's no guarantee the private sector will be able to accommodate them any faster.
If we had a cost-effective, quality, accessible healthcare system in place outside the VA, maybe it would make sense to merge the two.
But we all know how dysfunctional and expensive our private system is. How can it provide care for our vets when it does such a terrible job of providing for the rest of us?
18
The entire U.S. healthcare system is overburdened because Americans eat like pigs. The populace craves the sugar in their processed foods because it leaves them craving more. And the government subsidizes this obscene sugar consumption. Congratulations, America. You have successfully subsidized diabetes.
Dr Shullkin is too good a man for the veterans to lose. He says his trip was to a professional meeting and his wife, also an M.D., was officially invited to join him.
WHATEVER. It does not justify firing. With 1,700 hospitals to operate, better to follow Doc Shulkin's idea to make them better, first class, than to bleed them of patients to private industry. Here is where government waste, on a gigantic scale, could be avoided by Senor Trump. But he is not seeing it.
Here you see why government waste piles up simply with wrong thinking and politcs. Trump spends twice as much as Doc Shulkin spent in one weekend flying his entourage to the Florida hotel he owns via Air Force One. Yuch.
21
Could we get some reporting please about the reactions of major veterans organizations.
16
Why shouldn't veterans be able to see whatever doctor they want? Especially in more sparsely populated areas.
Going even farther, why do veterans even need a separate health care system? What needs to they have that cannot be met by the public and private hospital system? That's an honest question, not a rhetorical one, and no one seems to be addressing it.
There seems to be concern that "political agenda" people want to steer business to private health care and make a lot of money. As if the people lobbying to keep the VA don't have a "political agenda." They just want to preserve another bureaucracy that has failed our veterans.
1
They need one to focus on issues related to their service that few in the general population actually have.
8
Vets get free medical care. Doctors in the private hospital system wouldn't want to treat them, just like they don't want to treat Medicaid and Medicare patients, because they do not get paid enough for treating them. It's all about the money.
4
I agree with Ms. Pea. Vets, especially in coastal areas, need to understand that just as many doctors now refuse Medicare patients, many would also likely refuse to see veterans under a similar plan. Further, they would need to understand that hospital care in major metro areas would likely be similar to that provided to Medicare patients now -- very fast and dwindling.
3
Veterans will be getting less than the same treatment the rest of us can expect from Republican-run health care. Very patriotic.
8
If your parent developed brain cancer as my dad did, a disabled Vet, would you want them to be confined to getting treatment at a local VA hospital? Or would you want them to have access to the best hospitals in America?
My dad thankfully had Medicare and Medigap insurance and was able to get treatment in Memorial Sloan Kettering, the best cancer hospital in NY and perhaps in America. My dad insurance so had those options. All Vets should have the option to go outside of the system for treatment. The VA might be the best and most experienced in treating PTSD and actual war wounds but not in other areas of care, I have never seen a VA hospital make any of the lists of top hospitals.
My dad received his drugs from the VA and the VA would not except an RX from an MD from Memorial Sloan, my dad would have to actually go to the VA hospital meet an MD and have them write the RX. At the next open season, he joined a Part D plan so he did not have to return to the VA. Outsourcing, by giving Vets Medicare Parts A, B & D would provide better care then what the VA hospitals offer in most areas.
PS. What it took to get my dad a wheelchair in the VA, demonstrated to me the petty bureaucratic nature of many of the employees at the VA.
3
This combat vet says NO to privatization of VA provided healthcare.
28
One more thing Trump has no clue about.....privatized veteran benefits.
Actually, Dr. Jackson has no clue about that, either.
Who loses? Veterans such as my husband, a Vietnam vet, who has trusted the system.
16
Prisons, education, logistics on the battlefields we are fighting on, no VA care. What a blatant transfer of public funds to private hands.
10
Given that the cowardly Mr. Trump has never served under fire, or served his country in general (or any interests but his own), it's no surprise that he held a conversation with Dr. Shulkin a few hours before firing him, without discussing the plan to do so. According to all reporting, he has never actually fired anyone to his or her face; like all bullies, he is a coward, and does it behind the person's back -- now via tweet instead of through such enablers as Michael Cohen.
Dr. Shulkin's ethical lapses might or might not be relevant to his dismissal, regardless of his accomplishments at the VA. He certainly showed the poor judgement common among high-achieving professionals, but given the track record of this administration -- corruption and self-serving and theft of public money and services, insider trading, etc., from Tom Price, Ryan Zinke, Scott Pruitt, Ben Carson, Betsy DeVos, Wilbur Ross, Jared Kushner, Junior, Ivanka, and, of course, Cadet Bone Spurs himself -- I doubt the trip to Paris had anything to do with the decision to get rid of Shulkin.
Rather, the possibility of giving away a huge tax-payer built-and-funded organization to the Kochs as a private enterprise -- precisely the way Putin gave away Russian assets to HIS oligarchs -- is the far more likely, and soon to be proven, explanation.
Will no one rid us of this troublesome beast?
13
Well Gee almost no Obama appointees should remain, they are the deep state.
Sad. The "deep state" is a made-up term for long-term, professional federal employees who serve their country and fulfill the mission of their agencies no matter what administration is elected. They do that work for less pay than they can earn in the private sector, and they do it well.
At the end of the Bush administration, thousands of political appointees had their status changed in order to burrow into the bureaucracy so as to sabotage the incoming Obama administration (that was documented at the time by this paper, among others). Many took pay cuts to go from "appointed political officers" to GS grades. THEY were the Deep State imagined by Cheney and his enablers like the Kochs.
The Obama Administration did NOT do the same thing. The president and his staff had far too much integrity to do so. As a result, many Cheney-Bush appointees are still there, undermining government from the inside -- and as always, the right wing accuses progressives of the right wing's own crimes, hoping to deflect attention, further undermine the public's faith in government, and distract from what they themselves are doing.
It's an old Stalinist tactic, adopted by Putin and perfected by the Trumpians."Look over THERE!'
And swallowed by deplorables everywhere.
1
Veterans should vote for the Democrats if they don't want to lose their healthcare at the VA.
21
The most obvious reason this administration is dead set on forcing our veterans into our already dysfunctional healthcare marketplace lies in the vast profits that will be reaped when the taxpayer money for veteran's care is re-routed through the corporate cash extraction machine. Wealthier executives and poorer veteran services are entirely predictable.
10
The VA system has become a bloated, inefficient mess that cannot provide timely care, holds no one accountable, and only manages to stay afloat because of the work of tens of thousands of medical trainees - residents - who are essentially indentured servants for the purpose of getting trained. Why not give veterans a Medicare card and be done with it? For those who want single payer, i.e. "Medicare for all," why would you be opposed to veterans getting a Medicare card? Do you know how much medical care you can get for the $200 BILLION budget of the VA? All of Medicare is $600 billion. Add $200 billion to Medicare and give our veterans access to Medicare. The only issue will be how to train our residents. But that's not the job of the VA - its job is to provide medical care to veterans, and it does very inefficiently. A major overhaul is needed!
1
It sure won't be overhauled the way Trump is doing it.
4
If the veterans want a Medicare card, then they are going to have to be happy with the care Medicare provides, which is in many cases being cut back. Further, in many major metro areas, like NYC, more and more doctors are refusing to see Medicare patients at all.
2
Let me ask: why not provide all veterans with super-great medical insurance at no or low premiums? Instead of a frustrating system of government hospitals and clinics? Happy to use my taxes for that.
1
That won't satisfy the Koch's and their minions. The government is still going to pick up the tab for the insurance and probably at a higher cost than the VA.
And if they make it like Medicare, then the reimbursements won't be enough to make profits for the hospitals.
1
The goal is "rewarding private individuals and companies with a windfall in government money'
Thank you NY Times for continuing to focus on the real story within this story- and calling out the Koch brothers crusade to privatize any government program they can shake a stick at- meanwhile, completely ignoring the obscene inefficiency of American private sector health care.
Inefficiency is all in the eyes of the beholder. In this case, it is bad for the average working American, whose premiums and taxes are driven up by the chaotic waste generated by our poorly regulated private sector health care- but great for investors all over the world that have stock in the health related companies that benefit.
When you spend twice as much per citizen as other wealthy nations on health care, that money has to flow somewhere and it is mostly flowing upward to investors all over the world.
As far as the Koch brothers, their goal appears to be to emasculate the federal government to the point where they completely control it and its function is reduced to protecting the acquired wealth of plutocrats.
Absolute Capitalism is their radical and unfounded dream- what rational planners need to do is find the sweet spot of balance between capitalism and socialism that serves Americans best. Health care is one of the jobs government does more efficiently that the private sector- the proof is in the data.
10
The VA may not be perfect, but it is the one great example we have in this nation of how universal healthcare can work. And it does! It’s universal only for Vets of course. And the active military has its own medical service. But the wrap-around services and coverage the VA provides is unbeatable in this nation!
I’ve never been in the Miltary. But I did spend one very worthwhile summer, in grad school, as an Psych Intern at the VA. There you can find every type of service, including mental health services - both inpatient and outpatient. (Something our private health services are sorely deficient in these days.) The quality of Psychology Departments is extremely high. And the VA is largely responsible for launching the speciality of Clinical Psychology back in the 50’s as I recall.
What this nation needs is not privatizing of the VA. But instead Universaling of the rest of our medical care. It is wasteful to have so many medical systems in this nation. We could save a lot of money and have much better wrap-around services by expanding the VA model, along with Medicare, the active Military health system, public health, the National Institutes of Health, school health services, private healthcare of many types and the commitment to all our citizens having equal access to good healthcare.
I can recall many camping trips to Canada. The tiny clinics and presence of hospitals in even the smallest of towns, the remotest of provinces.
Universalize! Not privatize!
13
It does? In South Fl, they kill vets with their superior care. Just one such issue. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/24/florida.va.facilities/index.html
Remember this in November, that the Republicans' desire is to have private doctors making money for treating veterans rather than have the government fulfill their promise to them. Dollars over morality led by the amoral Koch brothers.
Look beyond the daily media circus and in depth at what these people are proposing, the nearly complete destruction of the federal government with all regulatory responsibilities in the hands of the private businesses and people like the Kochs.
VA may be flawed but that is primarily due to the lack of proper funding over the years by both parties. They are not, however, allowed to refuse qualified patients. In areas where this hybrid privatization has been tried, doctors turn down patients because they won't make enough money. Their only obligation is to themselves. Just like the Kochs and their repulsive allies. Selfishness has served them all very well.
Vets? Not so much.
7
Since 9/11/01 a mere 0.75% of Americans have volunteered to wear the military uniform of any American armed force. There will thus be far fewer future veterans affairs to be concerned with by the federal government.
3
Why can't we just give our Veteran's a medicare card that pays 100% rather 80%?
1
Politicians have abused the military in so many ways over the years it is shameful. They are always happy to have them as a live backdrop when making announcements, they take full advantage of them when they return in caskets to offer “thoughts and prayers” but when the troops come back damaged either physically or mentally the politicians are nowhere to be found. If someone has sacrificed their health in the defence of their country then they deserve nothing less than the best care available and at public expense. Privatizing this care is just a way for the already rich to become richer and with less accountability and the care the injured soldiers, sailors and aircrew receive will be turned over to the lowest bidder.
4
The Kochs, and other predatory capitalists, cannot stomach any government benefit system, because they they will not personally profit from it. They will not be satisfied until social security, medicare, the VA and any other such system is destroyed and a system where they can take a big cut of profits is installed.
Greed over people. I don't see a good future for us.
8
The other guy got fired cause he was not making enough progress in destroying this truly socialistic medical system called the VA. The new guy should be able to bring it down faster as he is well qualified in not knowing anything about running it. After all, to provide better care to veterans will only advertise the fact that a single payer system can and does work, a concept the GOP must keep secret.
5
It's unthinkable that America's veterans are forces to accept government run healthcare. Let them enjoy the the benefits of insurance company run healthcare that other Americans are privileged to. Give them the freedom to choose between insurance policies. I'm sure they would be grateful.
"Benefits of insurance company run healthcare"? Have you partaken of this lately? I have. My copays and premiums keep increasing while my benefits keep decreasing. Have you compared the VA system to the private sector? What has your data shown?
5
Trump used veterans as a prop regularly during his campaign and made many promises to ensure reforms at the VA would take place. Firing the secretary that opposed the Koch Bros money-grab and replacing him with a loyalist with no apparent qualifications to run the VA was a decision based on cronyism, not about veterans best interests.
Reminder - these veterans risked their lives for our country and made huge sacrifices including their health. We OWE these Americans the very best health care available every day.
56
This is what Republican voters voted for; it is no secret, and neither was Trump's character.
I understand that the majority of veterans and of the current military votes Reublican. If they want to disassemble VA protections, they have voted in the right people to do that.
7
There is much danger in the push to privatize: is the private sector ready to take on the new VA patients? Also, what level of care will the VA patients receive in the private sector? VA patients may not get access to the best care if the highest quality physicians are already at capacity. Then there is the issue of the paperwork and approval of payment: will the best Doctors want to deal with the 3rd party insurers who handle the Choice program? There is concern that the care and followup may well be less than what the VA now delivers. Health care is complex, and the simple idea of privatization is fraught with uncertainty. Dr. Shulkin was cautious about the Choice program with good reason.
9
I have no personal experience with the VA, so I don’t know whether privatization is the best solution. No data in the articles helps me with deciding this question. We are expected to evaluate the best solution based on ideology and political party. Not a good way to decide things.
The VA has obviously had some wait time problems, but would a better budget help with that? Would privatization be more efficient or provide better care? Are we prepared to spend the necessary money to make this work? Are we going to have the same third party payer problems we have with other healthcare? All the questions we should be asking.
2
The VA is a mess. Hospitals are staffed by moonlighting doctors and veterans will likely be assigned to a different doctor every time they show up. The entire system should be revamped. Current VA hospitals should be revamped and staffed with permanent Internists and certain high volume specialists assigned to individual veterans. They should coordinate care and refer complex cases to specialists outside the system. Outpatient procedures could be handled at the VA and surgeries should be completed at local public and private hospitals that show the best outcomes. The VA should have staff assigned to these hospitals to check in veterans and to serve as there advocates. My sense is that such a system would be cheaper and result in much better care for our deserving veterans.
2
Hospitals all over the country are staffed by moonlighting doctors because we have a doctor shortage in this country. Visiting nurses fill many positions in hospitals already. There aren't enough doctors and nurses to have permanent specialists and internists.
10
One of my best friends, a Vietnam War Vet has been going to the VA hospital since his injuries in the Air Force. He loves the care he gets and no he gets the same doctor each time unless they are on leave or vacation. His only complaint is that it would be beneficial to have some small clinics scattered around to deal with more routine issues.
Our private care system is no bargain. Who acts as an advocate for you when you see your private physician.
6
As an outsider, an MD from Canada, I believe that privatistion of the VA would be an unmitigated disaster. While there appear to be problems with the VA, some would say major problems, there are also areas of excellence which are unlikely to be equalled in the private sector.
In addition to that, although perhaps the private sector could replicate some of that excellence in terms of physical rehabilitation it will undoubtedly fail in terms of PTSD management (although none of the armies of the US or its allies are doing well in that respect)
Those who advocate for private medicine, as always, disguise their intentions as providing 'choice' while in fact they are advocating for themselves, a shift of public money into private hands, to the detriment of the vulnerable needy.
45
I agree and your point of view. Thank you. The comments section is my default source of information.
1
The only rationale for any form of privatization is the lack of access to care. The VA, as large as it is, is still understaffed resulting in backlogs that have been used as an opening to push for privatization. But, there is a much easier, less disruptive, and less costly solution to attracting physicians to the VA. That is, to consider it a public service that would qualify for medical school education loan forgiveness. With medical students graduating with an average debt of over $150,000, the VA would be able to attract many of the best young doctors at the end of the residency and specialization by offering loan forgiveness in return for a minimum of a 5-year commitment. Privatization involves profits and also high physician salaries that are almost twice what the VA pays. Moreover, government reimbursement as with Medicaid and Medicare is not accepted by many physicians. Hiring more, and more talented, young doctors is a much better way to provide immediate access to quality care within the VA than the simplistic solution of privatization.
58
The cost of medical school in France is $200 a year. I believe the figure of a $150,000 is much lower than the average for an American doctor.
The understaffing of the VA healthcare system is like the undermining of the Affordable Care Act; an effort designed to destroy both healthcare systems.
4
Having worked at both private hospitals and Veterans Administration hospitals my experience has been that the quality of care is far superior in the private and public sphere. Out here in the Midwest VA facilities are spaced hundreds of miles apart and veterans drive hundreds of miles to reach them. Veterans deserve the care that the rest of us enjoy.
The draft was eliminated over forty years ago and today less than 1% of the population serves in the military. This means that the need for veteran facilities will steadily decrease as the Vietnam veterans disappear from the scene. They are the last large generational bloc that must be served.
The VA bureaucratic employees are the only citizens that have an interest in expanding and maintaining A large Va medical system. The veterans themselves deserve better.
6
an MD myself, having worked in both private & public sectors as well, I have had a very different experience than you, Dr Murray. The VA I worked at most is tertiary referral hospital center which provides care much better than many of the small community hospitals i have experienced. Our spinal cord injury service had few peers in quality of care & patient satisfaction. Our oncology services rivaled those of nearby research universities - and at much lower cost.
The VA is a large varied organization, and as such, one cannot draw conclusions about all by experiencing only a few. Also, as the largest healthcare organization in the USA, they have the most exposure. Anything that goes wrong at one VA, in the eyes of the public & with the help of Koch-backed groups with agendas, suddenly applies to all.
Also, with our endless wars, unfortunately we have no shortage of new patients. I believe in the mission of the VA, and the promise that we've made to our Vets. As you mentioned, we now have a volunteer military. Why would someone elect to join if we don't uphold our obligations as a society?
The VA can do better - and Dr Shulkin was making great strides in that direction. Better access, more timely care, faster claims approvals - all under Dr Shulkin.
52
But what about the upcoming Iran/North Korea’s wars?
2
I’m a vet, and am quite happy with the care I’ve received at the VA. It’s unfortunate that you seem to have forgotten the millions who have served since Vietnam, and who serve even today. I’d suggest that vets have an interest in maintaining the VA medical system.
Take a close look at whose interests are being served by efforts at privitazation, it most certainly isn’t in veterans interests to wreck the system.
9
VA has been a disaster and scandal-plagued this past few years at least. The waiting time to get medical care had become unconscionable. So, a healthy public-private partnership is not to be frowned upon but rather must be actively welcomed.
As for Shulkin, the guy used taxpayer money to take his wife on a vacation to Europe, and the IG report was damning. There is no way he could fool anyone except the depressed liberals that his firing was caused by his opposition to any move to privatize Veterans' healthcare.
Give me a break.
4
So we want to replace Shulkin with someone who has no experience running anything like the VA and who presented us with a suspicious report on trump's health?
6
For the most part, an utterly uninformed comment. Anyone who thinks they can summarize a massive organization so simply, is ignorant about the subject and should speak only when they have educated themselves on all of the many complex issues. You clearly haven't.
6
Have you ever been a disabled veteran? Or even been a soldier?
3
You will take my Fathers VA Healthcare from my cold, dead hands.
By God, he EARNED it. Seriously.
58
Are you one of those people who voted for Trump cause you thought Republicans care ?
now you are getting what you deserve
well, actually, no one deserves Trump, but maybe you owe us liberals an apology ?
2
Ezra : Wrong. I'm a lifetime liberal. And nobody deserves Trump.
My Father: Korean War. Two tours. Seriously.
1
Privatizing the medical services currently provided by the Veterans Administration is a grotesque idea. The coordination of care among specialties found in the VA system is virtually nonexistent in private healthcare delivery.
100
That's patently untrue. Just the opposite. Not only do academic medical centers provide coordinated care extremely well (and the sickest patients typically end up in academic medical centers), but with the increasing consolidation and adoption of EHRs, even community hospitals are able to coordinate care better and better. Looking into the future, I'm optimistic. And a single-payer "Medicare for all" approach to veteran medical care would be a very good thing for veterans. What good is coordinated care if you can't get it in time?
1
Amen!
1
One more firing by our cowardly president. And once again an experienced administrator is replaced by a likable "swamp" buddy. The Doc may be a good medical man,and friend, but he is anything but an experienced administrator to handle the nation's second largest department. Another piece of evidence Trump never put the country's welfare first.
40
None of the people appointed by 45 seem to realize that they are tarnishing their own careers forever. Admiral/Dr. Jackson has a good reputation, and a distinguished career. No matter where he goes from here, he'll always carry around the asterisk of having worked in the Trump administration.
22
Pew research (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/26/u-s-veterans-are-general.... Ergo, anything that is bad for veterans is a good thing. Bring it on!
Votes matter.
5
I'm not as reflexively opposed to the concept of privatizing some or all of the VA healthcare function as some. The VA does the best it can, but its problem are legion, endemic, and probably not fixable.
Perhaps the solution is a hybrid of sorts; access to the same healthcare most of us use for the majority of veterans' medical needs and the needs of their families, which aren't necessarily different from the rest of us, with a smaller, more focused VA that focuses on the specific needs of those who served.
Just about anything is going to be better than what vets have available to them now, but whatever they do has to be singularly focused on better addressing the needs of veterans without breaking the promises we've made to them.
4
Why do the Koches hate veterans?
At a time when the oldest veterans are most in need of help with end-of-life issues, as Viet Nam era vets head into old age, and the hundreds of thousands of veterans of a war that's lasted almost the entirety of the 21st century stream into an essential but underfunded system (thanks, Congress!), now is not the time to put it into the hands of for-profit corporations and a patchwork of healthcare providers who may or may not have the specific knowledge to treat veteran-specific issues.
Is it because the VA health system, threadbare as it is, reeks of a unified, single-payer system that provides essential health care without the expense to men and women who need it?
If we really want to honor those who served, why not put a "Veterans' tax" on every company that profits from the military. All proceeds to provide medical care for veterans, and life care for those too disabled in their service to be able to take care of themselves.
To all my friends who currently serve, and to family members who have put themselves in harm's way, thank you for your service.
As non-combatants, our job is to take care of those who did go.
92
A reasonable idea for consideration.
3
It's not that the Koch's hate veterans. They couldn't care less about ANYTHING or ANYBODY except for making money. Having a captive audience/consumer is a rapacious capitalists dream. There is no good reason, either political or economic, for privatizing ANY govt. service, be it road building, health care or military fighting force.
5
I looked up the Koch family bios--not a veteran in the bunch since they arrived in America...just like the trump family where trump the first was thrown out of his homeland for refusing to serve
5
Veterans represent a large and powerful advocacy and voting group. If there is concern about impacts to services, one can hope this will be considered in decisions regarding election choices in 2018 and 2020. Given the high likelihood of continuing military action abroad and need for services, it is difficult to imagine there will not continue to be a need for comprehensive and complex care for returning Veterans (eg burns, brain injury, substance use disorders and mental health among others).
23
Why do you think the Koch Bros want to privatize the VA? Can you imagine the profits they think they can squeeze from an endless supply of injured soldiers?
It boggles the mind
5
Can we get more info about experience background and capabilities, and less about blunt descriptions of where they are on the political spectrum?