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From what I have observed with the VA system, it operates TOTALLY different from other sectors of businesses, one being you can't get fired after you pass your probation period.
When you have that type of benefit, it's easy to just do enough to get by to collect a check.
This whole situation is very disheartening. If the people who risked their lives so that YOU could be safe are treated like scum in a health care setting designed for them, I have no faith in these other systems.
My parents are on a fixed income and use their VA benefits. They would be in a world of trouble without it. We Re underfunding the system unfortunately.
Agreed. I worry about the people who complain about it but don't rely on it because they are not familiar.
Uh huh. Taking care of our vets, pure socialism. Treatment is free? I would hope so. They've sacrificed more than you and I can imagine.
Yeah, that's what ticks me off about agenda threads like this. The story here is not that "socialism doesn't work" - the real story is that this country does an utterly disgraceful job of taking care of military veterans after they're all used up and can't kill for us anymore. That's the real problem in this story.
Yeah, that's what ticks me off about agenda threads like this. The story here is not that "socialism doesn't work" - the real story is that this country does an utterly disgraceful job of taking care of military veterans after they're all used up and can't kill for us anymore. That's the real problem in this story.
Thank you for the lead-in.
One easy to understand point is that because socialism did not work for our veterans, there is absolutely no reason to believe that it (a single payer system) would work for an even larger pool of Americans; only crazy people would continue to advocate for such a system.
Moreover I agree with you; i.e., leaving our veterans in the hands of incompetent bureaucrats and a pure socialistic system is, indeed, a disgrace.
It's clear to me that you are referring to the people in our government who are responsible for providing the V.A.'s funding. And it is also clear you are pointing out that these government people were too incompetent to even properly fund the socialism that they personally owned (the V.A. itself) and for which they were entirely responsible to see that it was not run incompetently.
Government incompetence begets government incompetence: I can't imagine why am I not in the least surprised.
The lesson for the day is that when pure socialism fails, government officials cannot point the finger of blame at anyone but themselves; they are forced to stand nakedly incompetent for all the world to see.
"Market competition will control costs and more efficiently distribute services. Profit motive, not run-amok bureaucrats, will discipline the system. Better doctors and health specialists will be attracted to this profit-based system. And our veterans at long last will get the medical care they deserve."
Costs may be contained, but what about prices (they are different you know)?
The problem with the medical industry is that there are no prices. How much does an exam cost? or surgery? or lab tests? No one knows. People never find out how much something costs until they get the bill, and even then the bill varies as different insurers negotiate different prices with different health providers.
Without prices, people cannot comparison shop. I cannot call around and find the cheapest doctor or one that can take me right away like I can with mechanics. Even with prices, medicine defies traditional economic laws. If I deem the price of televisions to be too high, I can choose not to buy it. If the price of medical care is too high, I will find out a way to pay for it because the decision not to get care could be life-threatening. This fact alone will lead to a pricing nightmare.
In the end, it will be the poor that suffers, as people who must pay the lowest prices will end up in Wal-Mart-style clinics -- waiting in long lines for service, getting little face time with the doctor, and being served by employees being paid as little as possible, all while the Wal-Mart-style clinics record record profits.
Don't think it can happen? Ask an elderly person what stores and shopping were like in the 1950s compared to now.
Really?? Just look at the last 200 years since Capitalism has been around. Capitalism has achieved in its short life what all kinds of tyrannical regimes did not achieve in 5000 years. Besides economical and material things -- talk about healthcare, human rights, quality of life, etc. etc.
Take slavery for example -- Engels named a whole 1000 year period of human history as the slave-ownership societies. Feudalism was even darker. Capitalism abolished slavery in very short order.
Ironically, based on facts, it have been the modern Socialist Regimes that have re-introduced slavery.
Maybe Communism or Utopia (if achieved) can be better (!!), but Socialism is just another flavor of a very old rule -- Tyranny. Same-old, same-old. It has been a plague on humanity for the 5000 years, and we just can't seem to get away from it.
Socialism doesn't mean tyranny. Democratic socialism is totally different than tyrannical socialism. Sick and tired of people using the Soviet Union, Cambodia and Mao's China as evidence that socialism doesn't work. Those countries were all ruled under tyranny and people didn't have the right to elect their leaders and vote on laws. So please stop saying that that's the only way to have socialism.
Btw the VA is way ahead of the curve in terms of transitioning to electronic medial records. They have been using an efficient digital system for years and the other hospitals are still trying to catch up. Yes, the VA isn't perfect but it has much lower administrative costs than the rest of our health system.
The VA is eating up the Pentagon budget. The military needs to get out of the medical benefits business.
1. Move all veteran's medical benefits to the Medicare system, and fund that.
2. Veteran medical benefits should be limited to veterans who have at least 20 years service or who were wounded in service. If they did two tours and have diabetes or cancer, they should seek care from the civilian medical system. I know a guy who was a 2 year draftee in the Viet Nam era who spent his whole time pushing a typewriter, but the VA has paid for two hip replacements for him.
3. While you are at it, fix the whole disability system. I'm over 60 and can't play NFL football. That doesn't mean I'm disabled. My neck hurts. That doesn't mean I'm disabled. If you are "disabled" you should get vocational training and rehab. Any support payments end when the program ends. After that, go get a freaking job. Disability shouldn't be a feather bed.
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