Part Of The Backlog Is Caused By The Economy

[JamesBreckenridge]

I thought that the reasons claims were up 14 percent was because we were fighting two wars for the past 8 years... but I'm told that the numbers don't bear that out. Lord knows that I only rarely get a Global War On Terror (GWOT) vet's claim. Almost all of my claims are Vietnam vets and retired peacetime vets, coming in for their first claim ever, or claiming every condition under the sun as secondary to their service connected condition.

I think it's the economy. Social Security is experiencing exactly the same thing we are.

<i>Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.

What happened? The recession hit and many older workers suddenly found themselves laid off with no place to turn but Social Security.

"A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire," said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If they were younger, we would call them unemployed."</i>

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_...y_retirements_8

I'm not trying to justify our backlog, but rather to shed some light on part of a multifactorial cause.

[Papa]

John999's reply actually put a thought in my head (I have them sometimes) . Once, we get this total government medical care that will take care of everyone's medical needs Veteran and non-Veteran), will they do away with the VA medical system? Our government has an obligation to take care of the Veteran, but now it seems like some in Washington believes that we have an obligation to take care of all citizen's medical needs. So, why not tear down the signs and make it U.S. Government Hospital, or someone can thank of another more bureaucratic name, I'm sure.

Papa

PS: Is is not intended to be political.

[carlie]

Those eliglble and/or receiving medical care thru a VAMC will

continue to do so under the proposed goobermint health care policy changes.

carlie

[broncovet]

I agree with Papa. If the government thinks they can save money by governmentalizing health care which is now largely private, what is to stop them from merging VA and government health care, even tho Carlie is right that it is not in the PRESENT proposal? What they are saying is "More is Better". That is, they think the government, because of its huge size can more efficiently manage health care, than say, Blue Cross/ Blue Shield. The problem with that theory is that it fails to take into account the economic principal called the " Law of Diminishing Returns." This law states, in effect, that as a company grows, it becomes more efficeint..it buys in bulk, and gets discounts, and employees are allowed to specialize and get very good at their area of expertise. However, when the company reaches a certain size (at about 100-500 employees, depending on the industry) it Peaks, and then efficiency falls off with ever increasing size. My econ prof explained it with Big Macs. He says most people will get enjoyment from consuming a big mac. If you consumed 2 big macs, you might get less enjoyment than the first one. If you kept on eating, say, 31 big macs in a setting, you would get far less enjoyment from the 31st than you did from the first big mac. He even suggest the enjoyment from that 31st big mac could even be negative.

In a similar way, the huge size of the federal government has passed peak efficiency long, long ago. Just like Big Macs..what is your Peak number of Big Macs? One? Two?

Four? 2397? My "law of diminishing Returns" with Big Macs peaks at 1.5 if I am real hungry. Others could eat maybe even a dozen and still enjoy them all. However, no one could benefit from eating one big mac from each mcdonalds in the USA..that is too many...just like our federal government is just too large to do anything efficiently except to allow crime to grow inside of it.

[carlie]

Let's get back on track here and stick with the topic James started,

"Replying to Part Of The Backlog Is Caused By The Economy",

I surely admit to being one that has gone off topic here.

carlie

[hurryupnwait]

I would agree that part of the backlog is caused by the economy. When people are out of work, their minds are thinking that maybe now I should apply for that disability compensation that I should have done years ago but never made time for because we were in milk and honey times.

I would also agree that part of the backlog is poor planning by the VA. The baby boomers are aging and many of them are veterans, so where was the planning for this influx?

I would also agree that part of the backlog is senseless denials that put the Vet into a BVA to CAVC to BVA to AMC to RO loop that last years.

I would also agree that part of the backlog is caused by ............

I think you all get the picture

Happy Trails

Paul

[Pete53]

I don't think that the main reason out 8 plus year War is the biggest contributor. The VA has always tried to operate on margin thin reserves and now we see what has happened. It will take years to straighten this mess out.

If the VA would offer me ChampVA I would opt out of VA.