Kansas City Soldiers Fight For Treatment

Here's some EXCEPTIONAL REAL WORLD JOURNALISM that offers a perspective on local life the politicos from both sides of the aisle often ignore after empty pleasantries about the troops win elections. Checkit:

Kansas City vets battle VA for the care they deserve

KCTV5 News has been taking a closer look at the problems people are having when it comes to healthcare. Our focus now is on veterans -- men who survived a war but now battle an administration for the healthcare they deserve. KCTV5 got a phone call from a veterans group that meets at IHOP.

Comments

  1. CIDG Boy, 62-632/5/18, 6:58 PM

    Okay, these are a bunch of guys in their fifties who are trying to claim disability for what they say are service related injuries.

    Let me speak to the other side, and to the subject of HEALTH CARE, which this article SAYS it addresses.

    I have been using the Kansas City VA Center as my primary care provider for eight years. Prior to that my health care was always through my employers. I have NEVER received care to equal what I am receiving through the VA. I have had occasion to use their Emergency Care, Optometry, Neurology, Dermatology, Radiology and routine Health Maintenance and Preventative care.

    On one occasion I was not satisfied with the care I was receiving from one physician (nothing major, just communication problems) and the VA's Patient Advocate's Office immediately arranged my transfer to another Doctor.

    I have found, and in talking with other veterans have found that they too have found that working within the system, especially with the Patient Advocates, always seems to bring a positive result.

    While I think it very possible that these men are experiencing difficulties, I do want it said that there are others of us out there that are quite satisfied with the care provided, something that the Media NEVER seems to be able to discover.

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  2. 6:58, assuming you are not a military retiree and therefore legally entitled to health care through the VA, and that your current health problems are not service related, why do you deserve to get your health care at no cost to yourself while most Americans struggle to pay for theirs?

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  3. I have regular health instance but I use the VA because they hand out opioids like candy.

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  4. The VA killed my dad.

    Arrogant doctors and nurses disrespected us.

    Mudda Fudders.

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  5. 7:30 Because that was the deal when we joined.

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    Replies
    1. Exactly. That was the trade off. A lot of guys swept up in the draft who, unlike our current president, didn't get deferments for a fucking bunion went to Vietnam, lived in filth and squalor, and the least the country owes them is its promise of world class health care.

      The reason you hear so much shit about the VA is because it's a public facility. Its book are open to the senators and congressmen who, despite getting free healthcare themselves, hate anyone else getting free healthcare. They hate it to the point of doing everything to badmouth the men and women working at the VA. You don't hear about the problems and errors from the for profit hospitals because they bury them. The VA can't bury them. They put their laundry in the light, unlike most hospitals.

      Delete
  6. I thought Bone(head)spur In Chief was gonna' fix all that.

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  7. Orange Julius Caesar said the VA was fixed.

    He lied??? What??????

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  8. 7:30, are you claiming that you were promised free lifetime health care through the VA when you enlisted or were commissioned, regardless of the length of your service? I joined too, but I don't remember anybody making that promise to me. I strongly doubt that such a promise was made to anybody.

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  9. The public is so fucking ignorant on VA healthcare it is unbelievable. First off VA healthcare was a lifetime benefit BY LAW up until George Bush became president. Even after they took the benefit away those who had already enrolled got to keep the promised VA benefit except that they had to start paying copays on prescriptions and visits to the VA - even if the specialist they saw were not even doctors. Additionally the Pharmacy copays were higher than Walmart and Kmart generic drugs by a longshot and the VA pharmacy was charging copays on things like baby asprin, syringes, diabetic supplies and alcohol wipes, even if they only cost $1.00 at Walmart.

    Next they decided to allow those with service connected disabilities and injuries to have healthcare. Then they decided that the Vets who would have been able to receive care (prior to the law change) could have VA care IF they had virtually no assets or retirement savings. Then they limited care to five years for war veterans. Then they started denying care with roadblocks. For example if you needed drugs then they would place a shitload of requirements on you that no civilian would ever have to deal with. If you we 65 years old, were a few pounds over weight and needed knee surgery they would force you to go to their weight loss program or fucking do without. If your son returned from the war and was suicidal they would give him a number and his wait for care could be up to 9 months - if he was still alive.

    In the mean time civilians were driving by these VA medical centers with ten stories and multiple annexes not having a fucking clue how the vets could have such nice facilities and be complaining. What these tax payers did not get is that near all of these veterans hospitals ave been converted to little more than clinics with the rooms converted to offices for bureaucrats. The largest VA facilities in the world that once had several hundred patient rooms are now office building with clinics and ten or twenty actual hospital rooms. Most surgery is farmed out after veterans go through months of hell and are forced to suffer while bureaucrats bullshit and fiddle fuck around shuffling paperwork. Urgent radiology will still often buy you a six to eight week wait which is only remedied if the jock straps at Veterans Choice are lucid enough to catch it and get you to a civilian facility.

    When a veteran does use the very limited Veterans Choice program, instead of the VA being proactive, they fiddle fuck around neglecting to pay the bills until the Veteran has his credit destroyed, is sued or has to go bankrupt.

    To top it off the VA only treats less than 40 percent of veterans and most of those only rely on teh VA for clinical types of visits (flu shots, diabetes, etc) rather than major medical care.

    (CONTUNUED)

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  10. All of this shit is just the tip of the iceberg and the myriad of VA issues would fill volumes. It is true that the tax payers are being fleeced, but the fleecing is not because of those who served. the fleecing is because the VA has been allowed to become a have for bureaucracy and bureaucrats unfettered by progress or efficiency. After decades and decades there is still not a single advisory committee comprised of veterans who are allowed to promote changes that cut through the fat and bullshit, reduce VA costs and turn that mess into a viable health care operation.

    Nevertheless VA care is not a government handout. It is a benefit that was owned veterans under the law. It is not a hand out and it can be argued that what veterans are receiving really is not a benefit but a detriment to their overall good health. Tax payers who bitch about it should remember what the cost of the war machine, what it costs to go to battle and what it costs to make a point on foreign soil. If you don't want to foot the bills stay out of conflict or tell your representatives to do away with VA care. Just make dam sure potential military recruits are informed of the law. That way, when they bring back the draft and come get your daughters to serve, you won't have a thing to bitch and whine about.

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