Newsmax: Privatize the VA

http://www.newsmax.com/MichaelShannon/VA-Scandal/2015/07/30/id/659647/

Privatize the VA
By Michael Shannon | Thursday, 30 Jul 2015 12:31 PM

Combat veterans are learning the hard way they may cheat death on the battlefield only to find the Grim Reaper saving a seat for them in the Veterans Administration healthcare queue.

AP found an internal VA report “indicating that nearly one–third of veterans with pending applications for VA healthcare likely have already died.”

VA bureaucrats complain it’s hard to know if the vets were really “seeking VA healthcare or had merely indicated interest in signing up.” With the VA, it’s probably a good idea to get on the waiting list the day you graduate from boot camp.

~snip~

It’s time for the Vietnam solution: Destroy the VA in order to save it. Privatize the hospitals, give a generous severance package to all the paper pushers, let the senior executives make that fortune in the private sector we’re always hearing about, and give vets that qualify a card that entitles them to medical care anywhere they want to go.

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As you may know the VA has hit Congress up for $3.4 billion or so to keep the system running. Typical Republican response to to the problems - privatize it.


http://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-are-desperate-for-34-billion-from-congress-for-medical-care-2015-7
http://www.stripes.com/dod-money-for-outside-health-care-could-run-out-this-week-1.360002
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/emergency-bill-fund-veterans-affairs-department-32742493
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cerner-wins-dod-contract-to-overhaul-electronic-health-records/2015/07/29/7fbfccfa-35f5-11e5-b673-1df005a0fb28_story.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/23/va-has-41500-unfilled-medical-jobs-forcing-vets-into-costly-private-care/30504525/
(Critics warn of $11 billion Pentagon health records fiasco) http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/pentagon-electronic-health-record-critics-120730.html
http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2015/05/va-put-vets-risk-spending-billions-unlawfully-whistleblower-says/112828/

One LTTE jumped out:

http://www.jdnews.com/article/20150801/OPINION/150739699

Prior to the June 25 hearing on the state of VA’s fiscal year 2015 budget in Washington, D.C., Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., reportedly released the following statement.

“VA’s continued lack of transparency and refusal to be forthright with Congress is unacceptable. It was not until I called a hearing in response to warnings from the field about the budget that VA admitted to a $2.6 billion shortfall. Secretary McDonald has testified four times within nearly as many months about VA’s budget, without ever mentioning a shortfall of this magnitude. Less than three weeks ago, VA came to Congress asking to remove $534 million from medical care to pay for the largest construction failure in VA history. Talking around the facts and alluding to the need for budget flexibility without justification or supporting data has become an all too familiar practice at VA. I look forward to discussing with Deputy Secretary Gibson how such a massive shortfall could have come as a surprise to the department, and how to put an end to these frequent cost overruns while ensuring veterans receive the care they have earned.”

What I gather from this excerpt from the committee’s chairman is that, due to fiscal irresponsibility, there will be a shortfall in funding for veterans. How will this affect the veterans who receive health care or compensations remains to be seen. It can also affect the widows that receive DIC and perhaps the dependent students that are going to school on the post 9/11 or chapter 35.

What strikes me is that here we are at the 11th hour and I have seen no mention of it in the media. We are talking about people who served this country. It makes it seem as if these men and women are of little importance anymore as hostilities are supposedly over.