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Senate bill doubles spending on veterans’ health
Associated Press ^ | Jun 14, 2014 3:15 PM EDT | Matthew Daly

Posted on 06/14/2014 2:23:55 PM PDT by Olog-hai

Spending on veterans’ health care could double in three years under the Senate’s solution to the long waits experienced by thousands seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics, according to congressional budget experts. […]

Both the Senate bill and a House version also passed this past week would dramatically expand government-paid health care. They would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay private providers to treat qualifying veterans who can’t get prompt appointments at the VA’s nearly 1,000 hospitals and outpatient clinics or who live at least 40 miles from one of them. …

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: va
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Money is not the problem at the VA. Throwing money at the death panels creates more death panels.
1 posted on 06/14/2014 2:23:55 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

The answer is to throw out EVERYONE in charge
who is not a physician, nurse, surgeon or equivalent.

More likely al Qaeda will be put in charge like the Pentagon,
OR a criminal illegal alien as was put in charge of
ObamaCARE.


2 posted on 06/14/2014 2:26:54 PM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: Olog-hai

Just watch. This mainly will give the unionized employees better pay and better benefits. They will still neglect Veterans and kill them by neglect.


3 posted on 06/14/2014 2:28:02 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: Olog-hai

Can you say “Pouring taxpayer dollars down the VA rat hole?”


4 posted on 06/14/2014 2:28:08 PM PDT by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: Olog-hai

The unions get a raise!!! Whoopee!!!


5 posted on 06/14/2014 2:31:37 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government." --Tacitus)
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To: Olog-hai

I could improve performance, save money, and not write one new law. I would fire 10% of VA staff top to bottom via lottery and tel them it will be done every 6 months until the problem is fixed.


6 posted on 06/14/2014 2:33:33 PM PDT by WMarshal (Free citizen, never a subject or a civilian)
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To: Olog-hai
I think they mean, "Senate bill doubles spending on government union workers in the VA system."
7 posted on 06/14/2014 2:34:54 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant
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To: Olog-hai
Spreading the wealth to outside services just dilutes the focus on the problem. Doctors and nurses are not the problem. Unionized, surely staff ARE part of the problem. Higher level Civil Service managers are the other. Start firing and replace with veterans.
During the last “election’ there were Obama symbols in many employee cubicles.
If one turns in a complaint or suggestion, the response is “No one else has a problem with that”. Veteran patient parking is taken up by staff by 0800. Travel pay Vets have to stand in long lines to approach a single window. Etc, Etc, etc...
8 posted on 06/14/2014 2:45:49 PM PDT by Phosgood (Send in the Clowns...but Wait, they're here!! >..<)
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To: Olog-hai

Why do I suspect that doubling the spending will end up doubling the wait times?


9 posted on 06/14/2014 2:56:28 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" means something different to 0bama.)
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To: Olog-hai

Do the VA employees think this means they double their pay? Seems that is all most of them care about.


10 posted on 06/14/2014 2:58:24 PM PDT by boycott
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To: Olog-hai

It’s the solution to every problem. Apparently.


11 posted on 06/14/2014 3:28:10 PM PDT by clintonh8r (Can Juan Williams possibly be that stupid?)
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To: Olog-hai
The first thing that MUST be done is to track down anyone complicit in these "secret lists," and criminally charge them with wreckless endangerment and falsifying government documents. Next, find anyone who profited from the falsified waiting lists (i.e. bonuses), these scumbags need to be tried for fraud.

Should any of these charges be felonies, then at any VA hospital where veterans died due to lack of care, everyone charged with those felonies also needs to be hit with homicide charges, just as a getaway driver can be charged with murder even if he didn't pull the trigger himself, these bureaucrats are every bit as responsible for the deaths of the veterans.

I cant help but wonder if Heinlein wasn't somewhat prescient with his book, "Starship Troopers," where the veterans took over the government, given the way the government has screwed over the veterans.

Mark

12 posted on 06/14/2014 3:33:49 PM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: Olog-hai

Seriously, this VA problem is so bad that the best solution might be for states to provide a “Veterans’ Urgent Care”, so that veterans qualified for VA can get timely health care, unless the problem is so severe that they have to go through the VA.

By radically reducing the number of vets going to the VA for routine and chronic care, a lot of the pressure would be taken off the system, so that it could concentrate on those who really needed help, now.

Granted, state systems would likely require a small copay, but if you are willing to spend say $20-50 for health care now, instead of go on a several month waiting list, it would be worth it for all but indigent veterans.

All that would be required is for the feds to *allow* states to do this.


13 posted on 06/14/2014 3:48:35 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: Olog-hai

You remember when a congressmaqn suggested that veterans who had to wait should be able to go to private doctors ???

well it used to be like that..BBO before Barry Obama...

Veterans had a choice of going to a local hospital for specialized tests etc like colonoscopies instead of a couple hundred or so miles away to a VA hospital..

It may be coming back real soon...Veterans will be going back to the local hospitals and clinics..


14 posted on 06/14/2014 4:05:59 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Olog-hai

The liberal never ever admits to have made a mistake.

No matter what the results of their programs, the solution is always to spend more money on it.

Spending more on the VA will only give us more of the VA we already have.

What needs to be done is for veterans to be issues a special medical card which would actually be a credit card admissible as payment in any accredited hospital in the world with the caveat that the reason for treatment must be service related.

The VA would not be required to examine the veteran to determine the cause of admission, as any doctor could make that determination based on an examination and a review of the veteran’s service records, medical records and discharge records.


15 posted on 06/14/2014 5:38:12 PM PDT by old curmudgeon
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To: Olog-hai

YAY. Now the VA can hire even more unemployable affirmative action hires.


16 posted on 06/14/2014 6:33:24 PM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: hal ogen

Just watch. This mainly will give the unionized employees better pay and better benefits.

They can’t unless they give every Federal Worker a raise. VA employees are regular GS employees like those of the Pentagon. Sorry to take air out of your over the top nonsense.


17 posted on 06/14/2014 7:00:04 PM PDT by napscoordinator (Governor Scott Walker 2016 for the future of the country!)
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To: Olog-hai

Perfect, give the fools more money to squander and docs more money to “privatize”.

Just like schools, the problem is not lack of money.

Damn fools.


18 posted on 06/14/2014 7:41:59 PM PDT by Sequoyah101
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To: napscoordinator

“Over the top nonsense”...just watch. Are you a VA employee?


19 posted on 06/14/2014 9:22:48 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: hal ogen

Nope.


20 posted on 06/14/2014 9:49:42 PM PDT by napscoordinator (Governor Scott Walker 2016 for the future of the country!)
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