Posted on 05/29/2018 6:47:22 PM PDT by mdittmar
AFGE condemns the Senate’s passage of a bill that would open the door to privatization of the country’s largest health care system.
Once signed by President Trump, the VA MISSION Act, which focuses on funneling dollars to the private, for-profit sector, will allow for the outsourcing of 36 health care categories including mental health care and spinal cord injury care and allow a private corporate-style commission with unfettered power to decide which VA facilities to close. The act will force veterans into a for-profit private hospital after the closure of their VA.
AFGE had attempted to amend the VA MISSION Act to ensure that the only health care system tailored to the unique needs of veterans was preserved, but was unable to secure the necessary provisions in the House and Senate.
By voting to pass S. 2372, Congress is punting on their responsibility to care for the men and women who have served our country and are taking an extremely dangerous step toward privatization. It is a sad day for the 9.3 million veterans who rely on the VA for their health care and for the more than 120,000 veterans who work there.
AFGE thanks Senators Cory Booker, Jeff Merkley, Mike Rounds, Bernie Sanders, and Brian Schatz for standing up to privatizers by siding with veterans and the working people who serve them every day. We also thank those in the House who stood by veterans and working people as well.
Earlier this week, AFGE was joined by 16 other labor organizations who wrote to every member of the Senate asking them to reject the VA MISSION Act because, “Too much is at stake for veterans, their families and everyone who benefits from the VA’s extraordinary accomplishments to succumb to political pressures to hurriedly pass potentially damaging changes with many unknown consequences.”
Since the 2014 waitlist crisis was first exposed by rank-and-file workers – many of whom are facing firing or the closure of their VA facility now – AFGE has been sounding the alarm on corporate interests seeking the privatize the VA. Now privatizers backed by the Koch brothers are closer than ever to achieving the goal of making a buck off the backs of our veterans while forcing them into an inferior system of care.
“We made a promise to veterans when they signed up to serve that they would be taken care of when they got home – not forced to wait in longer lines at private, walk-in clinics,” said AFGE National VA Council President Alma Lee. “These brave men and women didn’t risk life and limb to receive inferior care outside of the only health care system tailored to their unique needs.”
Poor babies, no longer have access to the government nipple.
“Too much is at stake for veterans, their families and everyone who benefits from the VA’s extraordinary accomplishments to succumb to political pressures to hurriedly pass potentially damaging changes with many unknown consequences.”
Translation: We lazy and worthless government bastards are hoping you won’t pass this needed legislation because we don’t want to have to go out and find real jobs where there is accountability, and we could get fired, again! Trump better be prepared for a drop in “minority employment” with this legislation.
Now, if he could only privatize the Post Office!
“https://www.afge.org/publication/afge-national-va-council-re-elects-entire-slate-of-officers/";
Well lookee at that! Alma Lee was elected to her NINTH term to the AFGE National VA Council, and whaddaya know, she’s Black! And there we thought that Calypso Louie Farakkahn had a good gig!
Dear AFGE,
It is precisely the government employees who most often are responsible for the incredibly corrupt and inept SYSTEM that can be found at the VA. There are a few good ones who actually care and are responsible and reliable.....but only a few.
Affirmative Action has made a mess of the government bureaucracy. Employees should be hired on MERIT alone and fired when they are not working as they should....like the REAL world.
I don’t know about others here who receive VA care, but for me, it’s the best care of my life.
Bar none. No private care even came close.
But I am Tier 1 in the system. And I am in the Northern Cal region.
Many are not.
>>>But I am Tier 1 in the system. And I am in the Northern Cal region. Many are not.<<<
Proving that Care is not consistent throughout the VA System, thus the need to expand Care into the Private Healthcare Arena.
Me either,but I know one thing,Unions suck.
It's great when you can get to it, but the 400 mile round trips to the medical center get old when there's a local level 1 hospital in my town 20 minutes away and i'm sick as a dog on a 4 hour road trip in the winter over a mountain pass.
All the workers in private healthcare are union too.
Though most of the doctors are private contractors.
Where are you?
I can’t imagine that every diagnosed issue of a vet requires a VA doctor. I appreciate that some issues can’t be handled by doctor’s outside the VA System.
“I can’t imagine that every diagnosed issue of a vet requires a VA doctor.”
You are correct. However, there are things found in VA hospitals that make them worth saving. Some of them are intangible.
OTOH, vets shouldn’t have to make long pilgrimages to distant facilities for routine matters.
““We made a promise to veterans when they signed up to serve that they would be taken care of when they got home – not forced to wait in longer lines at private, walk-in clinics,” said AFGE National VA Council President Alma Lee. “
That’s a flat lie. The determination of giving care to retirees and vets was always on a space available basis. When I retired from the military in mid-1995. I was “allowed” to remain in an in-paneled position, meaning I was assigned to a military hospital with a military represented doctor for my PCM (primary care physician). And they weren’t always military but civilian hires, also. He/she could also send me to specialty clinic as needed based upon, again, space availability. If any of those clinics had too many patients to give me room to get in, I was forced to go downtown with all the cost shares any citizen, who was not promised anything, had to pay.
As for appointments with my PCM, each facility determines the amount of appointments and lengths of them a doctor or PA can have each day. If all their times slot, or the ones I might need, are filled, I can go to the ER and wait in line depending on the problem, or I can go to a civilian care facility on the outside using my medicare, which I pay for like everyone else whether I use it or not.
When I retired, I paid for military health care to use military facilities. That stopped when I turned 65 and I slipped over to medicare and the military allowed me to enroll in what was called tricare for life which is a secondary insurance after medicare and it is not paid for, it is free. I pay regular dollars for medicare but I don’t pay a cost share for military pharmacy drugs, if they have them. If they don’t I go downtown and pay like everyone else.
Going to a civilian health care system is not a lot different than what we have now as retirees. With the ex exception of the pharmacy, if it can be used, and tricare for life which covers 20% of the allowable, and if you are accepted into a military facility on space availability, it’s just like downtown. And as it is shrinking, it will be downtown possibly within my lifetime. I already use three downtown clinic that I didn’t have to a few years ago. Doctors in military facilities are shrinking in amounts and the cost of hiring civilians to backfill is getting expensive. Time will be the teller of the truth.
rwood
The other way to look at this is that veterans will be able to speedily obtain effective medical care as do ordinary citizens that the VA cannot or will not provide.
Northern California VA facilties and care seems to be among the best their is. Not sure why all can not be ran like this. Husband also went to the Front of the line, but had occasion to use others while Traveling and was always treated well. They all have Patient Advocate and will handle any complaint. From the complaints all VA s must not be ran the same.
Four Corners NM, about 200 miles from Albuquerque VA facility. They do have a clinic in the Farmington NM area, but if it's more than just a cold they refer you to the Albuquerque facility. The choice program was a godsend for getting local xray/ct scan, used to have to go to Albuquerque to get ultrasound or ct. That was a fun drive when I needed a scan for a kidneystone. Had to wait 3 weeks for the appointment and then the drive.
You can rent out the offices to regular doctors so they can get all their treatment there, you don’t have to close the hospital. Not at all.
I am just saying you let them get the best doctors for what ails them.
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