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VA Aim is to Privatize Health Care

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Almost all doctors will accept Medicare.  The administrative cost of medicare is about 2% of revenue.  For private medical providers it is about %20 overhead.  Much of that 20% goes for profits to providers.  Why must doctors and hospitals need to make big profits off treating people who are sick and dying?  This seems unjust in the richest country in the world.  If VA was set up like Medicare with 100% care for severely disabled vets it would be a winner IMO.   I am not so sure about Medicare for All since I wonder about all the premiums I have paid since I was 12 years old.   If all citizens get Medicare for All with no premiums, payroll tax, deductibles , or limits what about the millions who have been paying all along?  I want a refund.

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VA care vs private care...... 

I would never trust the VA to do any surgeries....in fact I would never agree to be admitted to a VA Facility. Speaking to my Nurse just yesterday she indicated that private care is really messed up, she said she wish she were a veteran so she could get treatment in the VA.  She indicated in the Temple Texas area that it took over a year to get a medical appointment for a condition she has. I don't know that anyone waits a year to get medical care at the VA.

In most cases private facilities will run many test if for no other reason to cover their butts, but along the way they charge large fees. I worked in the computer room of a Hospital once,  I saw first hand the cost of private medical care when I printed out patients bills.  A good example was $20.00 for one aspirin .. and this was 27 years ago.. its worse now.

The problem I see with the VA is that they hire to many Doctors right from Medical school, from any country, as long as they have a Medical License from one of the 50 States. Doctors trained in India,  or Guam, or Burma ( yes even Burma) do not have the necessary education to treat me as far as I am concerned. Another issue with foreign doctors is the language barrier, especially for those of us with hearing loss. And still worse the VA employs PA's and NP's because they cannot find enough trained medical doctors to work at the VA.  In fact according to my Nurse yesterday, there are over 50 thousand vacant  medical positions at the VA yes she said 50 thousand a number that is hard to believe and makes me wonder if the government really cares about veterans.

The nurse I spoke to indicated the biggest difference with private vs VA  care is that when ever something bad happens at the VA its in the news... but when something bad happens at a private facility,  they pay out malpractice claims,  and require non-disclosure agreements before any payout...  IN other words they both have the same issue but we almost never hear about a private facility malpractice or worse killing someone.... 

 I use VA care because of my disabilities, and the cost associated with care.... I need the prosthetic services for my braces, wheelchair, auto adapted equipment, breathing issue supplies and many other things.  This year I spent out of my pocket $10,000 for 2 portable oxygen concentrators, and two home oxygen concentrations, because the VA ( even with my 100% for COPD) will not issue portable concentrators, they are in the dark ages still issuing tanks.  My Medicare provider,  took my broken concentrator for repair, and tried to stick me with tanks, I never got the machine back and ended up canceling the service and purchased my own.  Medicare was paying an astronomical amount of money for these machines that within a 5 year period the provider was getting enough funds to pay  for the cost of three machines.  And when I complained to Medicare about the provider, Medicare said as long as they provide any oxygen service they was nothing they could do.

For me the Actual Medical care at the VA is good and bad....it depends on the doctor you see and the service they provide. Recently I was trying to receive treatment at Darnell Army Medical Center at Urology for a prostrate issue, for over a year the doctor gave me the run around about doing a biopsy, and other tests. This doctor did not even do the finger test, or check my private areas yet he wanted to send me off for a so called virtual biopsy, when no such test exist. I complained about burning constantly... and could not even get medication,    I went to the VA urology clinic . this doctor ( PA actually) did more in that one visit to help my condition than a year of treatment at Darnell. The PA determined I had Prostatitis  and placed me on Bactrum,  which immediately cleared  up the burning.    This is just one example of VA doing a better job.. now I realize that Darnell is not considered private medical care,  but I always was under the opinion that they provided better care than the VA. I was wrong. Another example,  My pulmonary doctor at Darnell literally saved my life ( had  Multiple PE's this past Feb) .. the pulmonary doctor at the VA almost never listed to my lungs, he would sit there and look at me for 5-8 minutes and refill my meds and that was that,  until 6 months later when we would do it all over again.  I had PE's for at least 3 weeks,  and had made a visit to the VA and  even after describing my issue I was ignored and sent home. The doctor at Darnell listen to what I had to say,  he admitted me suspecting PE, ran test, and did MRI within three hours of my being admitted they confirmed I had PE's, I was told that I had one large PE with multiple smaller ones. This doctor told me if I had gone home he had no doubt I would have died within two days.

No one  can state for certain that Private care is any better of any worse than VA care.  There are both good and bad doctors in each of the facilities. We always hear about the bad issues at the VA and almost never hear about the good outcomes. They each have there own problems but are just handled different ways.

Oh and too throw into the mix.. for those of us that are retired military ... the Department  of Defense had Incorporated all Military health  Care under the  Military Health system.. in other words the separate branches do not have control over their facilities anymore.  The goal of the Military Heath system is to eliminate all care for retired military in a military facility. The reason is apparent, the Military Health care does not want to treat retirees at all but especially those of us over 65. They will refer you to health care outside the faculty, and then the Tricare office sends you a letter saying they are not responsible to find a place of treatment for those over 65 on Medicare.  In the coming months we can expect that most retirees will receive nothing more than emergency medical treatment at military medical centers.  Remember the days we were told stay and retire and get free health care for life, for you and your dependents. Yet the Government refused to provide care, and Col Bud Day sued the government for retiree medical care, and before a decision could be made the Government created Tricare for Life... so the courts never rendered a decision concerning life time care.  Now we see that Tricare for retirees was not free, and even tricare for life has a price because they tied it to medicare that is if a retiree doesn't take part B Medicare he does not get to use tricare. This isn't free,  if fact when we turn 65, (or younger in cases of those on SSD) our cost for medical care goes up,  at an age when  the  income of most retirees  is stagnant. 

We see and hear all this garbage about one payer systems  its just never going to happen.. first such a system would cause delays in care, and many deaths but more important the Country cannot afford a one payer system, medical care would be rationed and the sickest would not get treatment.Overall  Our Government wants to get out of the Medical Care business because of the cost. 

 

Edited by Richard1954
corrected spelling
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  • Content Curator/HadIt.com Elder

I believe that a public/private partnership is a good thing, but doubt it will ever go 100% private. Veterans should have a choice in whether they would prefer to seek care at the VA or private doctors. What we veterans need is the ability to go to any non-VA health care provider, show our VA or military ID card, and get the treatment we need when we need it. It is somewhat like this for emergency care, but we shouldn't have to ask the VA for permission and wait weeks before being approved for routine or urgent treatment. If we get admitted to a non-VA hospital, we should not be forced to transfer to the VAMC if they have a bed under threat that they won't pay for continued non-VA care. It would be even better if we veterans were exempt from dealing with billing and let the VA handle all of that.

On the bright side, I have family who work at the VAMC. When the Mission Act rolled out earlier this year, they were all told that they really need to step it up because veterans can choose to get treatment elsewhere. VAMC management doesn't want that to happen. Not all veterans have private health insurance or TRICARE.

Eliminating compensation would amount to political suicide. I vaguely recall politicians trying this decades ago and they took a lot of heat for it.

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  • Content Curator/HadIt.com Elder
1 hour ago, Richard1954 said:

VA care vs private care...... 

I would never trust the VA to do any surgeries....in fact I would never agree to be admitted to a VA Facility. 

I get my surgical work done outside the VA. I don't want a student surgeon, I want one with 20+ years of experience. The only way the VA will cut on me is if it is the last resort.

When I was admitted earlier this year, I told the ER staff I was a veteran. After I was stabilized, they had me sign a form agreeing to be transferred to the VA if they had a bed available (my VAMC almost never does). The way it works is they won't pay your non-VA medical bill if you don't agree to transfer. With that recent court ruling forcing the VA to pay for emergency care, I can see the VA try to limit payment to just the ER cost and then attempt to weasel out of the cost for being admitted, etc... Should be interesting to see how that unfolds.

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Great physical and mental harm was done to me and some other Vietnam and Korean veterans at the Temple, Texas VA hospital in 1985 to 1991 as we were used as drug guinea pigs and embarrassing to us training aids in a room full of medical students by a good German VA doctor (without our permission as they were sneaky how they did this).  One veteran hung himself in a tree outside our ward the night after he witnessed my ordeal that day and he had been thru this himself.

On another occasion in 2000 an Austin Texas VA clinic psychiatrist was found guilty in district court of sexual assault on veteran patients and staff.  I was one of his almost victims but left his office abruptly when he tried his hanky panky with me about 6 months before he was indicted for his sex crimes against others.  His name was Vagashian (SP??) and his wife then divorced him and his son drove a sports car off a cliff in Colorado after the trial.

The Temple Texas VA doctor was eventually transferred to Arizona where he then died at young age of 63 and I am so happy happy.  I filed a VA injury section 1151 claim over those incidents in 2000 and received a TDIU P&T award with several years back pay.

Because of all that BS I use private medical care (medicare and AARP) for more than half of my health care needs and would never use VA for major anything.  One of my nam vet friends  died on their operating tables for heart surgery  at the Temple, Texas VA hospital. 

Many years later (after 1991)  7 VA patients died at Temple VA due to breathing tainted oxygen and local crooked JP gave the VA a white wash.  There have also been other negetlient deaths at same hospital over the years from 85 to at least 2009.  I moved from Texas many years ago.  I don't give a  F***** damn if they privatize the VA medical system for many reasons.

Edited by Dustoff 11
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I was once cut on at the VA when I was indigent.  It was done by a doctor in training.  They used a punch to excise a skin lesion.  When I told the doctor they could stop now, the doctor got testy and asked how I knew so much.  I told them that they were scraping the bone in my ankle and I could feel it.  They diagnosed it as Kaposi Sarcoma and told me I had aids, which was untrue.  I have had other operations on the outside for service connected issues because the VA did not think that the operation was necessary.

I have Tricare and use it over VA care as my VA doctor says it is better for me that way.  

I guess I as one would not be sorry to see VA Hospitalization go away but I think it is necessary for some vets.  The VA is the least best option but the only option for some.

 

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