I keep hearing about the VA healthcare...

[hootinholler]

You do realize it's rationed, right? Not saying it shouldn't be, but people make it sound like if you're a vet, you're set. You do realize that not just any Vet can walk in to a VA medical center and get care?

You do realize that even if you are 100% covered you still have to go to a VA facility for care.

The funny part is that the republicans hold it up as a high standard of care, which it is, if you live close enough to a facility and are eligible.

We need medicare for all, HR676.

-Hoot

[supernova]

1. I never understood

how my dad, a WWII vet, had to go to the VA in Winston-Salem for a check up, rather than using the VA here in Durham -- the one he worked at! :P

But they did do a excellent job for him. :thumbsup: And we took the opportunity to enjoy the western NC/VA border apple harvest because it was always fall when we went.

[alfredo]

2. I use it and I get better care than I ever did in the corporate system.

I don't have to first check to see if I can afford care. If I'm sick or injured I get care when I need it.

[grantcart]

3. The term is in itself idiotic - what do people want 'irrationed health care'

There is always some level of finite resources that have to be distributed, hopefully with some 'rationality'

We are not going to have unlimited heart transplants, for example. The limited number of good quality organs are going to be rationed among candidates who have the best chance of succeeding.

What do they want a lottery system that would give a donor heart to a 83 year old alcholic with failing kidneys?

[Oregone]

4. With all due respect...

"We need medicare for all"

Medicare for all will fail in half a century. You will see it in other countries. Its already starting to consume government budgets.

People also need to be willing to socialize health care delivery (like the VA does) in order to keep costs down. Simply socializing the insurance/payment end will not forever contain costs in a manner that is affordable for an entire nation. Whether you start by just creating state hospitals that do cardiac or cancer treatment only, paying doctors a public salary (instead of fee per service), something must be done more than simply insuring all citizens.

[underseasurveyor]

5. My ex was dishonorably discharged from the military.

That happened long before I knew him (late 70's)... but anyway

Last Nov./Dec. he became very ill and severely emaciated, 6 feet tall and down to 123 lbs. Yikes. He had no insurance and finally a friend dragged him into the local ER in his state. They admitted him and after days and a battery of tests they had no idea what was wrong. Somewhere along the line it was discovered that he had been in the military. My ex said that was mentioned about 10 am. By 3 pm that same day he found himself on a military medical transport to the VA hospital in Minneapolis where they diagnosed his condition which turned out to be a rare disease called Whipples disease (it took about a week), they replaced a damaged valve in his heart and I'm unclear as to whether the Whipples caused this damage to his heart valve. They kept him for another week since they wanted to be sure that not only was he on the mend but that he was gaining his weight back. Then they flew him back home. He said the staff and the Doctors were the best. No judgements, no bias, just great care and attention.

Now I'd say that's pretty damn good care.

[doodadem]

6. Our experience with the VA

One experience with the VA, and it was horrific. My dad is a WW II veteran, who had never collected any benefits, other than doing some vocational training when he first got out. So since my folks are always living on the edge financially, a few years ago, I said--let's try to get him some additional benefits thru VA.

Since we live across the country from them, my brother took my dad to his appointment. Now, my dad had always been the healthiest individual you ever met. Never sick, very physically healthy. The first person from whom I ever heard about "health food". His blood pressure had started to creep up a little when he was in his early 80's, so he'd been on a med for that, which worked really well for him.

The VA doctor said, we can switch your medication to this generic that is, "almost as good" as what you've been taking the past few years. So he did. Not even a month later, my dad had a major stroke that paralyzed the entire right side of his body.

It breaks my heart to see him having to use a walker, and dragging his right foot along. He's also been really depressed since it happened. Had to spend the first year in a nursing home just rehabbing to even get this far. His speech has never quite come back either.

This is the guy that used to take all of us kids out on Sunday bike rides, trailing along behind him like a bunch of ducklings. He took us hiking, and fishing, to all kinds of nature preserves. Taught me how to garden. Now, we're in the process of moving them to an assisted living facility, because along with my dad's problems, my mom was recently diagnosed with mid-stage Alzheimer's. She already had liver/colon cancer.

Now you want to talk about a major screw up, look at Medicaid. We've been trying to get them in this place since April. Medicaid has kept saying, we just need one more form, or one more whatever. At one point, they canceled my folks coverage altogether because they talked to my mom on the phone, and she got confused. They had to reapply all over again. Because of all the delays, my brother is having to pull the money out of his 401K to pay for them to get in there until Medicaid finally kicks in, or we're going to lose the rooms (oh yeah--Medicaid insists they have to have two separate rooms).

FUBAR.