A Personal View From A Veteran On The VA Scandals.

originally posted by: redhorse
a reply to: usmc0311

I am so sorry that you have been going through this. In my experience the mental health profession as a whole is being railroaded by what insurance companies will cover and The Magic Pill mentality. A behavioral approach is more effective but more expensive and takes longer to achieve measurable results. If they can just drug you into submission it is more cost effective for them.
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And the sad thing is how that seems to be a thread running in one way or another through almost all of the stories we've been hearing. Cognitive therapy may take time and money, but a pill will always just be a "pill". Having another human being acknowledge and care about a patient's struggles is therapeutic in ways that no drug can ever be.

I'm into my 60s and have never struck another person in anger, not ONE fight. Watching the livestock on the farm as I grew up taught me that animals are smarter and experience a more "self-aware" existence than we meat-eaters would like to admit. I can go to the grocery store, but I've never had the desire to hunt. When I fished, it was catch and release...

If I can't wrap my head around what our men and women who've served in combat had to go through, then I sure as H*ll don't object to the costs of helping them cope when they come home.

This country is supposed to be better than this. It's appropriate that somebody cared enough to stick their neck out and get this in the open when they did. To treat our vets like Dixie Cups is a national disgrace!!

I just wanted to Thank You for your service. I have No idea what being a member of the Armed Forces takes, or what war must feel like. Regardless I do know you and all other veterans have sacrificed for our country. I do know it is our government that makes the call for you to go and fight.

When it comes to helping you guys I really don't care about my "Opinion on War", I don't care about the "Politics behind the decision for the War". I don't care about Opinions of what is Right & Wrong or whether The Decisions are Right or Wrong. The only thing that I care about is the Treatment of the Men who took on the "Hard End" of these decisions. The men who didn't question that call and did what their country asked. All they have to do is make sure your taken care of on this end. but your right when you say we have lost our way. I truly believe a lot of the politicians in power don't believe in your cause. They only believe in the politics and how to best play them for their own cause.

Thank You. You are Appreciated by this American. Good Luck to you Sir!

originally posted by: grandmakdw

originally posted by: FyreByrd
a reply to: usmc0311

I have a solution to this problem and many others - Universal Single Payer Healthcare in the US.

No more VA, no more WC, no more medicaid. Medicare for all. Everybody pays - personally and businesses and everyone is covered - no co-payment, no complicated forms, no crap.

I grew up military - we only went to base hospital or clinic for the most trivial of complains and never a service dentist. We paid out of pocket.

Do I think veterans should be covered - yes and everyone else. Do I think verterans deserve excellant care - yes and and everyone else.

You just made the case against single payer when you said "we only went to base hospital or clinic for......and never a service dentist.

Single payer will turn the entire US into a "base hospital/clinic/VA hospital/VA clinic" these are the single payer systems currently run by the US government.

These are the shining examples of what the US government running health care will look like for everyone if universal single payer goes through.

Look at the horror stories of hospitals and care in the UK, and it is smaller than most of our states. Let's multiply the horror stories by 50 and now you know what
government single payer will be like in the US

Not at all. In our case only - mostly actually of the doctors in service has limited job propects elsewhere - with a universal system - the doctors availalbe to all of us will be of all calibers. Same with prision doctors. Often the dregs of the medical profession.

Thank you all so much for your replies and words of encouragement. They mean more than you could possibly know. I went to the VA yesterday only to be told they were going to repeat tests and give me new drugs to take. And on top of that I am getting a new doctor because the one I've been seeing for six months is leaving the VA. Now I have to start all over. Very frustrating to say the least.

I must say that not all VA personnel are bad. Many are great but are restricted due to the high level of patients they are required to treat daily. Although some VA personnel just don't care at all and treat you like garbage. I't just sucks to have given so much only to see my fellow warriors treated so badly.

Semper Fi.

My Prayers go out to you and your brothers.

The Military advertises great benefits, but it's a lie. The VA hospitals are scary and some are just depressing. The GI Bill?college fund, a scam. I used my supposed college fund, which comes with strings attached. I used my college fund as I was going to college, I collected a couple of extra checks which I needed. My college fund was earned by completing my tour and being honorably discharged, I collected an extra checks and they found out and instead of collecting the extra checks, they made me payback all the money.

The military as the government can lie and screw you, what can you do about it? Nothing, only join the military if you are desperate. I have talk dozens of young men from joining, they thanked me later.

It's funny how the government is acting like they are shocked about the VA scandal, they know what's going on since Vietnam. Look at the cancer troops are getting in a base in North Carolina for decades, it is a huge cover up.

We need a big change in the government, anything is better. These soldiers need to be named and honored from the VA scandal. Government employees involved must go to jail for murder.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
a reply to: usmc0311

Not at all. In our case only - mostly actually of the doctors in service has limited job propects elsewhere - with a universal system - the doctors availalbe to all of us will be of all calibers. Same with prision doctors. Often the dregs of the medical profession.

I was a premed advisor for Baylor University and you couldn't be more wrong about doctors in service. Many choose that path because the military will pay for their medical school in return for a year of school paid for a year in service plus pay, plus extra professional pay. Some of the smartest young doctors choose the service route because economically after the payback years they are way ahead of their contemporaries who are frequently paying off their student loans well into their 40's.
I know a prison doctor, he choose to do it because he felt it was a calling. He also is a doctor for the local AIDS clinic and does medical missions.

To call them the dregs of the medical profession is incorrect.

To call them overworked with greatly limited resources is more accurate.

Single payer in the US will look exactly like the VA, the government destroys everything it runs. Once MD's become salaried employees in a system that will limit resources with incompetent bureaucrats who know no nothing about medicine; then the best and brightest will no longer want to be doctors. Then we will see the dregs becoming the underpaid and overworked staff seen in countries where people are left to starve or die of thirst due to neglect in hospital.

The government ruins everything it tries to run. Name one thing the government has taken over in the last 150 years that has not become a waste pit of bureaucrat, or incompetence, or financially wasteful, or a political tool to destroy Americans who disagree with whoever is in power. Whatever you name I will find that one of these horrors apply to what was done with good intentions (ie Social Security) that hasn't become a nightmare of biblical proportions.

I for one do not want a cost analyst to say to my Doctor that my worth to society is less than the cost of my medical care for something that could cure me and I could still live a decent life. That is what the VA does and what will happen to you and to me under single payer.