Obamas Agenda On Va Affairs

[tagandbag]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/veterans/

It all looks good.

[john999]

Getting modest income vets back into the VA is a good idea because many have some insurance and it helps pay the freight. When you have a system that serves many poor people it becomes more like a welfare system. Since the VA opened up to NSC vets it has gotten better I think. When it was just for SC vets it was used by only the few SC vets and many very poor people with drug and alcohol problems. We all know the old VA was a drunk rehab center and detox. If middle class vets use the VA it will get better because they tend to complain to their congressmen when service is poor. The poor just stay quiet becasue they are afraid they will lose it all if they speak up.

[luvHIM]

Getting modest income vets back into the VA is a good idea because many have some insurance and it helps pay the freight. When you have a system that serves many poor people it becomes more like a welfare system. Since the VA opened up to NSC vets it has gotten better I think. When it was just for SC vets it was used by only the few SC vets and many very poor people with drug and alcohol problems. We all know the old VA was a drunk rehab center and detox. If middle class vets use the VA it will get better because they tend to complain to their congressmen when service is poor. The poor just stay quiet becasue they are afraid they will lose it all if they speak up.

I honestly believe there is much truth in your statement because I go to one of the best facilities in the Country right now. I believe it is one of the best for the very reason you have named in your comment. When you go out to the VAMC here it is filled with a lot of "modest income" vets and there spouses. I have been at the women's clinic and vets spouses are in there with appointments. So, I think it is a good thing, as well.

[purple]

I don't think that will work. Higher income vets have their own insurance. If they don't like the care they receive at the VA...I believe they will revert back to their civilian providers.

And....wow; this explains why the Dayton VA is why it is. Wish I could afford to move to one of those higher income places.....

[Pete53]

In hard times the VA really fills up. Dallas looks like a major sports event the parking lots are full and the hallways and waiting room full of people.

[john999]

Last time I went to my VAMC it was the most crowed I ever saw it. There is almost no parking at the VAMC itself. We have to get a shuttle bus from a shopping center. Now that is getting so that you can hardly get on the bus it is so crowded. The VA has cut down on the bus runs as well, so now I wait 20 minutes for a bus sometimes to take me a mile or two. In front of the hospital entrance are large groups of vets in wheelchairs and some sitting and standing. They have some crazy valet service that backs cars up and you have to skip between cars to get to the entrance.

Getting in the hospital is an adventure. When the joint was built the VA did not consider for one moment the growth in Florida's future population.

[LarryJ]

In hard times the VA really fills up. Dallas looks like a major sports event the parking lots are full and the hallways and waiting room full of people.

Yeah, the Dallas VA Med Center is ridiculous. During one of my pain-manglement grope therapy sessions we had the VAMC Administrator drop in to visit. One of the poor schmucks in our group had had to walk across two parking lots to get in the door (he is wheelchair-bound, but couldn't find a place where he could unload his wheelchair (powerchair) so had to revert to his crutches and he was badly in need of help by the time he got to our meeting. Couldn't have happened at a better time.

One of our guys (to bad it couldn't have been me, but I think of things to say the day AFTER they shoulda been said) said "Welcome to our group, now let's go out in the parking lot next to the entrance (Pete, you know the one, just across the entrance road north of the front entrance) and see how many VA EMPLOYEES are parked there, where folks that need that close-in parking can't park!

Don't know that it did any good or not, do know that the next week the "gate attendant" was stopping everybody and turning away a few, never seen that happen there before........didn't last though.

One other thing about the Dallas VAMC, you WILL not park off the "campus", well, you won't park off the campus if you want your car to be there when you get ready to leave, anyway!