Two VA hospitals turn away patients

The problem is not specific to VA hospitals. About 36 percent of all hospitals reported going on diversion, a survey by the American Hospital Association shows.

“It’s a crisis across America, not just the VA,” said Michael O’Rourke, assistant director of veterans health policy at the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “There’s a shortage of emergency room physicians, and there’s a shortage of beds, and there’s a shortage of nursing staff.”

The US only produces a limited number of specicalists each year, and the numbers were reduced by 25% in 2000 and still remain reduced. No additional RNs are being produced. A national insurance program will only be a failing from the start socialist system..medicare is a socialist system now and it is failing and is totally unfunded in the future. The US can never fund it..the dollar is in free fall never to return to a dollar index of 80. All further govt. spending only represents deeper bankrupt potential. The capacity of the system to accept lower reimbursment rates by providers and facilities, to add infrastructure to handle added numbers of patients by the tens of millions, and personnel (cultural marxist term is 'healthcare providers') to do the work with even tighter 'quality reqirements and standards'is, frankly, ignorant wishful thinking at best and political deceit at worst. For MDs, how can one do better than be board certified? Even that is not a guarantee of competence. The US seems to be a country of economic capitalists and social marxists. This is a losing combination, and, we are losing badly now.

I live near a VA hospital and come in contact with health care professionals who either work there or are friends of ones who do. Based on what I have heard over the years, the cost structure of the organization must be significantly higher than similar care in private facilities. While I fully realize that some conditions are unique to the population that the VA serves, many are routine.

For example, a late friend who was in the infantry in WW II, for years lived in the nursing “home” that was contained within the hospital. His medical needs were not particularly unique. It was just that the VA had room for him at this hospital. Anyone familiar with how much it cost to keep a bed filled in a hospital as compared to a private nursing home would be appalled at how much money this wastes.

Like all socialized medicine schemes, in the end the promise of unlimited care at zero cost proves the law of supply and demand will trigger such overwhelming demand that services can only be rationed by large waiting rooms, long wait times and limited staff.

One way to address the health care needs of veterans who present themselves to the VA to fulfill the government’s promise of taking care of them is to **give them a voucher good for the public or private facility of their choice**.

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