Nebraska, Iowa senators call for answers to questions about secret VA waiting list for mental health

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Joseph Morton / World-Herald Bureau

WASHINGTON — News of an unauthorized, off-the-books waiting list for mental health appointments at the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System has attracted the attention of Capitol Hill.

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, both R-Iowa, sent a letter to VA Secretary David Shulkin on Thursday citing an Oct. 15 World-Herald story that revealed the existence of the list.

“While we appreciate that the VA apparently took action to correct the situation after learning of it, the little that was disclosed publicly leaves some unanswered questions,” the Iowa senators wrote.

Earlier in the week, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., sent his own letter to the VA secretary seeking more information.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/livewellnebraska/nebraska-iowa-senators-call-for-answers-to-questions-about-secret/article_d523bff4-b4fa-11e7-b6e5-f355bbb610fc.html

[not fooled]

1. Of course

delays and this situation should be addressed. But, make no mistake, this is part of the effort to privatize the VA by depicting it as incapable of doing the job without being sold off. And, the pukes have been underfunding the VA, to create situations such as this so that they can point the finger and exclaim "See? It doesn't work. We need to change (privatize) it."

Excerpt from linked article. Emphasis mine:

In a statement, Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said that her aides are in frequent contact with the Omaha VA and that they are monitoring the situation closely.

“Our veterans deserve timely, quality care and it's clear changes must be made at the VA,” Fischer said. "In this particular case in Omaha, we need to know what went wrong so it doesn’t happen again."

I bet that their response will be to push privatization.

Again, if they funded the VA adequately, this situation wouldn't have arisen.

[LiberalArkie]

3. They believe that by simply rehiring at minimum wage and removing benefits and pensions

that it will lower the cost enough to great increase benefits to the executives.

[Phoenix61]

2. I will never understand how people

think that simply privatizing anything will increase services. If services aren't being adequately funded adding a for-profit player to the funding stream isn't going to increase services. It will give the government an easy out when there are problems because they can legitimately say it wasn't their fault, someone else was responsible. Florida pulled that shit with Child Protective Services and it turned out exactly how you would think it would. Evil little shits, every single one of them.

[tulipsandroses]

4. Its already privatized, so to speak

I'm a psych RN that works for a for profit in patient facility. We take care of a lot of vets. When the VA runs out of beds, they send them to us. I don't know how much my facility is being compensated. I am just glad that we are able to take care of these guys and gals when the VA can't. One of my peers that works at another facility that sees outpatients, just told me that the VA recently pulled the contract with her facility, and the Vets they used to service are now in despair. They have to go back to the long wait times to get appts at the VA.

I'm not saying privatizing the VA is a good thing. I just wanted to point out that many vets are being taken care of by private organizations when the VA can't meet the demand. Of course the answer for the VA would be more funding. However, inpatient mental health beds are often scarce, especially for those seeking substance abuse treatment in addition to other mental health issues. I enjoy working with the vets. Its quite maddening though that more is not being done for them. Unfortunately, I have to discharge too many to homeless shelters after they have been discharged. That's a big issue the VA needs to deal with. We have way too many homeless vets.

[not fooled]

5. Welcome

and you are doing good work.

My point is that the reason there aren't enough VA beds is that the pukes have systematically underfunded the VA in order to cripple it and hamper its ability to function. It's deliberate, not just the way things are or an act of god.

Their strategy is to starve government institutions of resources, wait for the problems to set in, then point the finger and say "see, government can't do anything right". They hunt for stories they can get on teevee showing how awful the government is and how it can't be trusted to do things properly. They don't publicize the failings of private business in the same way.

And, they have been employing this starve-and-destroy strategy in many sectors of public life--schools, universities, national parks--and now they are quietly cutting funding to run Social Security in order to make it not work and turn people against it.

The ultimate goal of these schemes is to sell off public assets to their campaign contributors and to diminish government. If this plotting and sabotage sound machiavellian and not something elected officials should be doing, you're right. But they do it anyway. They do not have the interest of the general public in mind.

[tulipsandroses]

6. Thank you for the warm welcome.

I agree. We are here, because they have systematically underfunded the VA. My heart aches for so many of these men and women.
I do wonder though, if Iowa and Nebraska VA outsources to private facilities when they can't meet demand. Its not a permanent solution but it does at least provide faster help to the vets that need care now.