Veterans Choice

New Anti-Veterans Choice Rhetoric

Veterans Choice

Benjamin KrauseThe multi-million dollar VA spin-and-stonewall propaganda machine is at it again attacking veterans choice advocates like Senator John McCain who believe we should receive health care choice from VA rather than mandatory health care from government employees who treat us like cattle.

This time, journalist Suzanne Gordon hammered away on John McCain and others who support treating veterans like other American by giving us health care choice by creating a permanent Veterans Choice Program.

McCain just pushed out the “Permanent Veterans Choice Card Program.”

GORDON Article: Vets May Suffer From Sen. McCain’s Latest Captivity

According to her post, she is a healthcare journalist and editor of the Culture and Politics of Healthcare Work Series at Cornell University Press… But more importantly, she is working on a book on the Veterans Health Administration. (Any ideas who may have funded her book?)

In her article yesterday, Gordon spews the same ideological rhetoric shared by VA secretary Bob McDonald and some other out of touch veterans organizations – Their rhetoric is that veterans love VA health care and veterans do not deserve consumer choice when it comes to health care.

RELATED: VA Pays Millions For Spin-And-Stonewall Machine

I for one am sick of this rhetoric that defies the disgusting and putrid stench of scandal that is emanating from the bowels of the most corrupt Federal agency in history. And I am even sicker of reading cut-and-paste propaganda that mindlessly regurgitates talking points that support the VA machine that is more about its employees than the veterans it serves.

Why should veterans not get consumer choice like other Americans when it comes to who cures us? Do veterans, unlike other Americans, not get a say in who touches our junk?

Here, Suzanne Gordon locked her sites on Senator John McCain’s new “Permanent VA Choice Card Act” that Gordon and McDonald claim would undermine VA health care quality. These two believe no veterans should get a choice in their health care because it could harm the poorest veterans stuck in the VA system. It does this, in theory, by diverting those funds VA has used so wisely to avoid wait list scandals and killing veterans through poor VA doctor choices.

RELATED: VA Defrauds 34,000 Combat Veterans Of Healthcare

Wait a second… Isn’t the current VA Choice Program the product of many veterans reaching out to the public after being harmed by poor VA health care? If the health care was already poor enough to kill or harm veterans, how can “choice” make it worse? Or, is it time we pull the plug all together as many have suggested?

RELATED: Soviet Style VA Patient Flag System Exposed

Frankly, the view of those in opposition to real veterans’ “choice” like Bob McDonald may seem sympathetic on the surface but are traditional communist views that withhold individual choice for collective benefit. However, that train has left the building folks.

Here is where Suzanne Gordon’s article and anecdote falls short.

Giving only one example of VA success, reporter Gordon highlights VA’s success in treating PTSD. However, didn’t VA get sued by Veterans For Common Sense for dragging its feet to create programs that would address this? It took a class action lawsuit for VA to get moving on PTSD… in 2012. That was three years ago.

That’s right. The VA has existed for over 100 years (mis)treating veterans for things like shell shock, psychosis and PTSD for it to finally create a PTSD system worth bragging about since 2012. However, that fact does not stop Gordon from shelling McCain’s pro-choice position from her own ivory tower at Cornell University:

Now McCain is reneging on his commitment [to not make Veterans’ Choice permanent].  He wants to make the program permanent, eliminating its 2017 expiration date.  He also wants to make private health care an option for any eligible veterans regardless of where they live or whether or not they have experienced any delays receiving care at a VHA facility.   In announcing his bill, McCain accused the VHA of dragging its feet on implementing the Choice program. He called for expanded privatization of VHA services as the only way to reduce costs and improve care.

Of course, if you are a veteran who tried to use Veterans Choice while in need, you probably ran into problems similar to those of my friend Paul Walker. You may remember his story calling out VA for its “crow flies” rule that sparked controversy even on Jon Stewart.

WATCH: NBC Segment On Veterans Choice And Jon Stewart

Suzanne Gordon cites Bob McDonald as a leading source of why Senator McCain’s plan is ill-advised:

One leading critic of McCain’s approach is new Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald, former CEO of Procter & Gamble. He seems to understand the many shortcomings of the private sector health care model for veterans far better than McCain. McDonald has already warned Republicans in Congress that our nation’s sickest and poorest veterans will be deprived of the unique health care expertise the VHA has developed over 60 years—and U.S. taxpayers will end up paying more for their care—if GOP privatization schemes succeed.

Wait a second. McDonald, a VA secretary for just one year knows more about VA’s problems than McCain, a disabled veteran and POW? Wasn’t Senator McCain a POW when Bob McDonald was at West Point living the dream? How does 20 years in the private sector working at Proctor & Gamble most of McDonald’s career trump a senior lawmaker?

Further, I love how she cites the only shill still willing to go to bat for VA health care – the head of Veterans Affairs. Who else is out there still? Why do all her points seem like the same cut-and-paste of other anti-choice op-ed? Why did she not get an opposing view? Isn’t she writing a book on health care from VHA?

Journalist Suzanne Gordon proceeds to equate the Choice Program with a Koch Bros privatization scheme claiming it “panders to the right-wing agenda…”

However, the impetus for this “scheme” that Gordon clearly ignores are the dead and injured veterans who needlessly suffered while VA employees defrauded taxpayers to enrich themselves. Since when are dead veterans right wing or left wing?

Now, I’m not saying VA gives bad health care across the country. It’s PTSD program works sometimes for some veterans. (Its TBI program was just caught defrauding veterans, though – Watch: VA ‘greatly regrets’ unqualified doctors doing TBI exams.) I am also not saying all VA health care is on par with what veterans receive in the private sector.

Suzanne Gordon uses some bait and switch logical fallacies to trick readers into drinking her cool-aide without questioning the tie in:

Are private sector primary care providers well versed in the subtle signs of the PTSD – a condition that afflicts   16 to 30% of combat veterans? How would private sector providers help veterans who now receive coordinated, care that integrates mental and physical healthcare services, home based care, geriatric, palliative and hospice care them navigate a fragmented, siloed health care system in which patients are on their own to make it all work?

Again, Veterans Choice is the outgrowth of veterans not receiving the same integrated care she claims justifies giving veterans no choice. The tie in here is that she connects progress over the past 3 years in PTSD programs with all other health care veterans are supposed to receive in a timely manner.

If veterans actually received this health care in a timely and safe manner, wouldn’t there be no scandal giving rise to Veterans Choice to begin with?

Suzanne Gordon continues her attack against pro-American, pro- consumer choice:

What would happen to the VHA’s research program under the McCain/Concerned Veterans plan.  These programs have produced benefits for all Americans (think advances in tuberculosis treatment, the development of the nicotine patch for smoking cessation, and the first successful liver transplant and the development of anti-rejection techniques)?

Gordon left out all the failed research VA has historically done on unsuspecting veterans including lobotomies.

RELATED: Wall Street Journal – The Lobotomy Files: Forgotten Soldiers

In case you missed it, VA research is big money in part because of the huge captive [sic] number of test subjects – veterans without choice – and the difficulty to sue VA doctors when they make errors that cause permanent injury or death in the name of research.

READ: VA’s National Association of Veterans’ Research and Education Foundations

Certain laws created in 1988 allowed VA to create Nonprofit Research Corporations at almost all VA medical centers nationwide. All the workers at the corporations are practically the same doctors at any respective VA medical center, except they are private corporations. This possibly puts the research out of reach of traditional FOIA rules.

The research corporations help flow money from private and public entities into research programs within VA. Who do you think the research is conducted on? Does it sound like a cheap way to do research? Could it be easy to funnel money between private interests and public decision makers, kind of like legal money laundering?

Anyway, I am sure this post seems more like a rant than an article, but Gordon’s full article (and you should read it) reads more like propaganda than journalism. Her arguments are practically a cut-and-paste of many anti-choice or pro-VA health care articles and memos I have read over the past years:

READ: Why Veterans Are Divided On Health Care

But I felt it was important to call this one out. I cannot stand seeing propagandists posing as journalists who write about how I SHOULD NOT HAVE A CHOICE… when I get health care from VA. All veterans should get a choice, and I do not care how many articles VA spins out through its propaganda machine to convince America it is doing a good job when it is clearly not.

Doesn’t absolute power corrupt absolutely? Don’t VA health care doctors act like they have absolute power over your body and your health?

America gave absolute power over veteran health care to VA for 100 years and that power went right to the heads of those clowns. Now, we have veterans dying and VA lying to cover it up as quickly as it happens.

Instead, maybe VA should go back to its roots and be the insurance company it is meant to be – fund our health care and pay out compensation for benefits. Big government does not seem to do a great job at health care unless it also increases accountability for those who break America’s laws.

Without accountability, there can be no functional VA health care system. But I am not sure VA will ever increase accountability, at least not under the current Administration, or even that last one for that matter. Both political parties share blame here.

For that reason, as time goes on, I get closer to the camp that calls for abolishing VA health care altogether. Maybe it is time America takes a good hard look at the fruit [sic] of their investment?

Source: https://www.beyondchron.org/other-vets-may-suffer-from-sen-mccains-latest-captivity/

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30 Comments

  1. I tried, and recieved a VA “choice card”.I must have called 30 Dr’s. Not one would accept it. In Alabama,, the people are used to lies, deceit, and having no voice. Out senator is pro VA, annd has voted against every good thing that Veterans need. Very few, that I have spoken with have any idea what goes on. Most or many Dr’s locally, have been thrown out of everywhere else. Around he, they last 2-6 months, then they are gone. I need the VA. But, most of what I have been reading applies. I came to Tuscaloosa VA diagnosed with PTSD, from National Center For PTSD, and somehow my diagnosis was changed to “nerves”.Only one psych aknowledged I suffer from PTSD,and I saw him once, and he was gone. DAV is of little use. Twice I have filed, but never heard a word( over 12 years. I am supposed to have a hearing in about a yea for another issue, and I fear filing for PTSD because it may put off my hearng. I admt, I am beat up, and scared. Where does one find answers that don’t screw with the 16 years I have waited for my 1st hearing? I have 30%.

    1. If you feel you need help and afraid of the VA not doing your claim properly!

      Contact Kenneth carpenter out of Topeka Kansas!

      It’s called charter carpenter, he is an attorney, who will handle your entire case!

      And you can relax and live your life, while he makes sure they stay honest!

      You can find him on line or the phone book! Advice them I referred you to them!

      They will know who I am!

      Good luck!

  2. Now I’ve been back to my primary care physician, drove 154 miles round trip, and affirmed that I want and need this surgery. She agreed that I need it. Reno VA has been jerking me around since early 2015. The doctor has really changed her tune! Told me my local hospital is too expensive! Got on my case about using the van! My town has not had the Thursday van in at least three years; willing volunteer drivers all aged out. She lectured me about how they can’t give everyone everything they want! She had no answers for my concerns about recovering at the Veteran Guest House which is nice enough but I would have to dress for co-ed common areas, share bathroom, probably have a roommate, plus rules like no opening windows and sitting on silly high chairs in kitchen to eat — no food in TV room or bedrooms! I am looking into getting a hotel/motel room, but then there’s the question of being signed out and how to get me and my car to the hotel. I have to get well enough and off pain meds in order to drive home. All this difficulty would be almost nothing if I could get my belly cut open at the fine hospital a block from my home! It certainly appears that my VA facility is digging in its heels to prevent anyone using Choice. Tomorrow I begin again.

  3. DAV sucks up to VA? You truly have no idea what the better VSOs do or how theyy operate.. You should be ashamed of yourself for that unwarranted character attack, but I am certain you are not. What happened to balanced and objective assessment? Are you writing for the applause? Preaching to the choir is easy. I expected better from an attorney. I no longer hang onto any hope of fairness on your part. I leave you to those who believe every word you say as long as it finds fault with the VA (AND now VSOs).

    1. Went to dav rep, dav let the very same person, whom I was complaining about answer the inquiry! This is a rural communitie. Nothing was done by DAV! In fact the DAV person who was to help me, was hired by the same person who is falsely accused me of disruptive behavior. Now I have another person, she will use as her puppet. If that doesn’t prove the VSO are not in bed with the VA. Nothing will. The VSO did such a good job not helping a veteran, They hired her! Tell me is this the way VSO officials are trained, tell me what is their job! Explain it to all of US!

    2. Too bad your leaving. I will just relate my story with the DAV. This will be the short version, I went to the DAV to handle my NOD. They had me sign a POA and then suggested I pay for a life membership in the DAV. In fact the secretary said, now that we are handling your claim, it would be really nice if you joined. So I did. At that time 98 Ryerson Ave Newton, NJ 07860 it was a fairly big expense for me. Anyway, after 3 weeks I called and asked if I could have an appointment with the VSO. I was told, “He got promoted and we don’t have anyone here now.” I then asked her when she thought he would be replaced. Her response was, I have no idea, but it won’t be anytime within the next two months. I then told her I am withdrawing my POA. i also wanted a refund of my DAV membership. Well, not only did she send a letter withdrawing their representation, they also said I wanted to withdraw my NOD. I never got a refund from the DAV.

      So, ericman – there is good and bad in every organization and the DAV does tell congress how much we veterans want to use the VA. Look it up. Unwarranted attacls on Ben, shows your lack of objectivity and research.

  4. I always said (and suggested, specially for the RATING SYSTEM/ THE “C&P Gang):
    Why don’t have a Uniformed Service for ALL Americans?
    Are We “Second Class Citizens ?”
    MSG VAM

    PS: Ben Hi! I need To Email to you! can you reply to me at my email please?

  5. To my brothers and sisters,
    Google the following article.
    “The Plight of Vets at the Memphis Veterans Administration Hospital”

    by Michael Volpe
    Aug. 21, 2015

    It’s on the “Communities Digital News”.
    There are four videos total. The VA spokesperson said there is always someone available (paraphrasing). The videos tell a different story.
    I can’t stress enough that this is probably not an isolated incident.

  6. 08/27/2015

    Dear Benjamin Krause,

    Thank You—I can read your articles—thanks.

    Wow!

    “Without accountability, there can be no functional VA health care system. But I am not sure VA will ever increase accountability, at least not under the current Administration, or even that last one for that matter. Both political parties share blame here.”

    “For that reason, as time goes on, I get closer to the camp that calls for abolishing VA health care altogether. Maybe it is time America takes a good hard look at the fruit [sic] of their investment?”

    No wonder why the site went down.

    Great Work!!!!

    Sincerely,

    Don Karg

  7. I saw my new PCP at the VA today (CBOC). She seemed like a caring individual, and we started talking about the Choice Program. I almost fell off my chair by what she said, “I just started here when the program was announced and I received a letter from my boss’s boss. (The Hospital Director of Medical Chief?). The letter said that no one that comes to this hospital is eligible for Veterans Choice and anyone who inquires about it should be directed to see their PCP.”

    I was very frank with her, saying that is why most of my specialists are outside the VA and the only reason I am seeing her is if I need a perscription, I can receive them through the VA. She said she completely understands and said I only have to see her once a year so she can maintain me as a patient.

    Any doctor who is not brainwashed by the VA, knows the issues we face.

  8. Dear Mr. Krause:

    I think the best next thing to do is: first vote for Trump, and in the meantime all those in the government that are anti-veteran prosecute them, but let’s be fair give them an option, between sending them to prison or draft those that will qualify, and send them as standby’s to be sent to relieve our war weary troops in Afghanistan or where ever needed, instead of getting paroled and reporting to a parole board, if they are qualified for military service, if not they can serve fool time in federal or state prison, depending the seriousness of the offense.

    See how they like it, I think that would be a fair deal which they shouldn’t turn down.

  9. So I got a response back from Ms. Gordon who assured me the VA is not paying for her book, assured me she has talked to hundreds of veterans who like the VA, that our private and VA health care systems are broken, then ignored my other questions or points made. She did say we needed to agree to disagree without the name calling, and when I questioned where I name called anywhere in my feedback, she said she may have misunderstood my comment to mean she was on the VA payroll and reprinting a VA press release.

    1. That’s great that you called her. Did she explain why her article was a one-sided slam of Veterans Choice?

      I guess the next question is asking her how she has garnered access to VHA to write the book and how the funding was resolved for its publication. Is it a grant through Cornell University? Is she accessing VHA officials or VHA documents for examination?

      In the 90’s VA did something similar for its Benefits Administration. They made a movie about the history of VBA. I have since requested it but VA claims they cannot find it.

      1. Her response was via email Ben. She didn’t say anything about how her book was funded…just that VHA was not paying for it. She said my comment appeared hostile on her reciting a VA press release. My response to that mentioned Phoenix, LA shredding claims, Tomah, Indianapolis and the IG withholding reports.

        I said she would have a hard time convincing veterans NOT to seek private care when the VA often cannot provide basic care. I also said PTSD treatment was a disaster until a lawsuit forced the VA to provide better care.

        I think it’s interesting I got an email from the VA just after that talking about how great they are doing reducing the backlog.

    2. 91veteran, why not post her email address on here so all of us can respond to her!
      To all, if you do respond to her give details, specifics and facts. Like 91veteran did.

      The more she here’s from veterans not getting great care, she might change her tune!

      1. I clicked on her name above and went to the “beyond” site where her opinion column is posted. I posted my intial comment to their feedback link at the bottom. I then searched on her name and found her web site where she had the same column posted. Her site is much like here where you can post a comment after leaving a name and email address. I posted a comment there, don’t see it posted yet, but got a response from her shortly after. Her second reply to me was at 1:47pm, and I get an email from the VA celebrating their low claims backlog at 2:11pm. I haven’t gotten spam email from the VA in weeks.

      2. 91veteran,
        you getting an email from VA (stating how the backlog is being fixed) after you got one from Susan. Tells me there has to be a connection between the two. Whether it be financial or otherwise is the mystery. Pobably both.
        If she only talked to a few hundred vets about healthcare, for some reason, I believe it was a “set up”. VA probably gave her the names (basically a list) and said, “here, talk to these veterans!” Also, I wonder if the “veterans” she talked to didn’t have a connection with VA (as in “VA employee”!)! There’s lots of veterans working at VA!!!! Of course, if they want to keep their jobs, they better lie their asses off. (Just like old McD does constantly), Or their just traitors.

        I’m not sure, but wouldn’t that be a ‘Hippa Violation’ of sorts? Or some kind of violation?

        To all, I would be cautious about emailing her in the future. VA, if they want, can locate off of an email address, a persons name, address, phone #’s, social security #, etc., etc…..

  10. Choice is great, if we do get to choose, my fellow veterans need to research the doctor and or facility and find out if the va influence their treatment policies. Are these facilities veteran friendly or does the va dictate their policies about how to treat a veteran. In other words is the private doctor making the treatment decisions or is the va going to tell the facility or doctor what he, she can actually do themselves or do they have to get authority from the va and veterans must know that va employees can interfere with their private care, by calling that private facility and put a bug in staff’s ear, you better watch out for a certain veteran, he, she is a trouble marker and if the veteran displays any symptoms of displeasure with the va, you need to report them immediately to the va for corrective action! I.e. Disruptive Committee. Think this is far fetched, if you do, you better think again. I know first hand that this has been done and have the proof! The department of veteran affairs higher management and Lead Administrators are in positions, where they can just make a phone call to another staff member of the private facility and bad mount you enough, that the staff believe, what the va employee said is a matter of fact and their mission to discredit the veteran is done and the veteran will still get shitty care or put you on a watch list. This is not paranoia it’s fact! I have all the paperwork and the proof of a va employee, telling non va staff, this veteran has been disruptive on many occasions. This tactic is unlawful, but what’s sad is most people, seem to believe people who make the allegation, instead of making an effort to find out if it’s actually factual and true. The va will try and harm veterans no matter where they seek care if they don’t like you. The Truth and nothing but the truth! .

  11. Let’s see here.

    The “choice program” only works for a few. I really haven’t heard that many positive remarks on it from anyone. It hasn’t worked for me and others here in Central Florida.

    McCain wants veterans to have outside medical treatment and other medical help. Which would save taxpayers a great deal of money.

    VA (Ol McD) wants to keep us veterans in the VA (non) health care system. Which they could use us in their research laboratories for the pharmaceutical and other medical corporations.

    McCain has this idea to basically partially eliminate the VA (non-working)healthcare system, so veterans can get much better healthcare outside.

    Am I missing something here folks? Everytime I PAY for outside healthcare, I have tremendous quality care. The physicians, nurses, technicians and administration on the outside wants to know my past medical problems. Not so with VA! Those idiots only want to know what’s occuring in or on you today. Most of the time, those idiots only do the minimum or nothing at all. I’ve gone to many quacks who look at me and say, quote, “I see there’s a possible problem, but I’m not sure what to do for you!”
    A possible problem, you don’t know what to do? WTF over, how did that quack ever graduate from medical school, or did he/she?

    I’m not saying there aren’t good physicians at VA. There are. Yet it seems the bad ones far outweigh the good ones! That’s a fuckin’ fact!

  12. My husband and I love the Choice program. They have been responsive to requests for service and acted when RO VHA has given us nothing but trouble.

  13. I have 7 years of college, am struggling to get surgery at my local hospital one block away, and at last I realize I am being jerked around not only by Choice but by my VA healthcare people who I long thought were doing very well! I am having to jump through outrageous hoops. But about the 7 years of college . . . I will have to read this article again and maybe one or two more times. 95% of the population isn’t very bright or doesn’t want to bend the brain or doesn’t have the education to wrap their brains around this kind of material. I didn’t like McCain, but . . . I am open to attitude revision once I make sense of this. Thank you anyway!! All the best!

  14. The answer to fixing the “VA problem” is simple, but involves complex and integrated plan implementation. The reason veterans continue to suffer while the VA laughs it off, is because we have a thousand little individual plans and solutions, but no integrated and cooperative effort.

    Analogy: The VA has hundreds of staff who do nothing but carry out plans that are designed to keep hundreds of thousands of vets under their thumb. These staffers include retired admirals, generals and others, with actual battalions of men and women that move the toy soldiers and toy tanks and planes around on the sand table.

    Addressing and correcting the VA problem is like the war against the Taliban or ISIS. Like them, the VA are the Indians, and we are cowboys. They are the smart guerilla warfare fighters who hide behind troops, while we are the “brave” yet stupid British troops with the bright uniforms, lining up in neat rows, for them to pick us off.

    To beat ISIS, it’s like this: They have taken 50 prisoners and have let it be known they will be executed in 72 hours. We know where they are, we know their strengths, we have the ability to save the prisoners before execution, but we fail to organize and do so.

    Eventually, such a rescue will take place. It will go something like as follows, described below to give you an idea of how peaceful and administrative methods have to be equally complex to save the VA for the benefit of vets. Remember, this is an analogy and in no way suggests or encourages the use of any kind of violence or force upon the VA, ever.

    It’s three hours after sundown. Two loaded F-18 hornets do a low flyby over the tents the prisoners are in, this is called shock, because as soon as they pass, they each drop two low-yield 500 pounders a click away. The ISIS guys don’t know what to make of this, while they instantly realize no one is trying to actually bomb them.
    This won’t put them in suicide bomber mode where they kill the prisoners. They wonder what is up.

    One hour before the hornets flyby 200 of our commandos have gotten within 100 feet of the three tents the prisoners are in. They came in by HALO jumps. They are laying there in the sand. Okay, it goes on and on. Layer after layer of coordinated effort. But, you don’t just walk in and say, give me the prisoners or just send a bunch of troops and start shooting at guys in black.

    But, that is what we do. We send wave after wave of untrained, unprepared, unsophisticated, uninformed ‘admin’ soldiers against the VA, and so is it any surprise we fail, and the VA stays the shit mess it is? We have to be like them, then beat them at their own game. Remember the Field Manuals you used in the service? They have shit like that, but they are admin manuals that they plug us into.

    They are effective because they have their shit together. We will continue to fail in our efforts to fix the VA, for their benefit and ours, until we get our shit together, and beat them at their own bureaucratic game.

  15. You can easily find her web site where this asinine drivel is posted and leave her a comment like I just did. This is disgraceful VA hackery at its finest and has gone on for many years. Rather than fixing problems completely they put out crap like this to cover it up. She mentions various veterans issues like Gulf War Syndrome, but ignored the fact that the VA still has no specific treatment for those illnesses over 20 years and millions of research dollars later. She also ignored the fact that there was a specific mechanism set up to find independent research to address this VA failure, and after a number of successes, the VA moved behind the scenes to kill off that committee. The VA could not stand competing with private medical researchers.

  16. I cannot get in contact with my VA PCP until my appointment time. The PCP team I’m on keep canceling and re-scheduling my appointments all the time. In the meantime if I need to get in contact with them, I can’t get them on the phone, so then I have to drive over to the VAMC, that’s 59 miles one way (118 miles round trip). After I get there I’m still not allowed to speak to the doctor or his nurse and have to give a message to a clerk to get in contact with the doctor or nurse and then after several days go by and I still haven’t heard from either one of them I have to drive back over there and repeat the same thing over again. I’m sick and tired of it!

    1. Next time you try reach them and they refuse to return your calls, write a letter detailing what happened to the Chief of Staff and ask him what he is going to do to fix it. Hand deliver the letter. If you get no response, send the letter to your local media.

  17. Let’s use ALL available resources to address all veteran issues now, and have a debate about VA’s future after we get past the “life or death” of this entire debacle shall we?

    1. I agree….. Do you know how many Veterans are dying every day?

      In the private sector 1200 people die every day in America, from Medical Error.
      YES 1200. and Congress does nothing.

      We do need to use all resources, to address this.

      I am willing to help/

  18. The VA Management Accountability Act last year was SUCH a bad deal for veterans. It was a masterstroke of either collaboration between the VA and politicians or the bureaucrats duping the lawmakers. This was ALWAYS the endgame the agency wanted. Here’s a brief history of how this worked for the VA

    POLITICIAN — You guys at the VA have screwed up big time. We need to fix this issue of veterans dying for lack of medical care.

    VA — We want to fix it, but we’ll need more $$ to send veterans to private doctors.

    POLITICIAN — Okay, here’s 20 billion bucks. Get this fixed.

    LATER…

    VA — We need more money. We’re over budget.

    POLITICIAN — What the hell happened to the money we gave you for the Choice Program?

    VA — Well, we needed it for more important things — like that wonderful new medical center in Aurora, a private PR consultant, and (of course) our performance bonuses.

    POLITICIAN — WTF?

    VA — Chill, dude. The public quit paying attention to this after you passed that law last year.

    POLITICIAN — So veterans still aren’t getting the care they need, and we basically just gave you all that money so you could grow your agency.

    VA — Yup — that’s about the size of it. Relax, though, your ass is covered. Your voters aren’t paying attention to this anymore.

    POLITICIAN — Sweet! Let me pull out my checkbook…

  19. To add to my comment above, after the test I was driven back to the VA in a VA van and dumped off at the door. I was so dizzy from the test I couldn’t walk. The driver refused to help or call anyone, so I stood there leaning against a wall for some time before I could trust myself enough to walk. I made my way back to the 3rd floor room holding anything I could. No staffer offered help until I was within 20 feet of my room.

  20. I truly believe the VA powers that be are scared spitless over the Choice program working, and vets finally realizing what kind of quality care a veteran SHOULD be getting.
    Years ago I was in the VA hospital in Houston. I had to go to another private hospital for a test the VA could not do. The difference between the two hospitals was shocking. One had clean facilities with staff everywhere that were friendly and very helpful. There were signs everywhere staring that if a patient had a complaint, they could call a number and submit one. The other had rooms like 1950s insane asylums, grouchy, lazy staff if you could find them, and security that accosted veterans every chance they got, but left outside doors open at night so any thug could wander in and steal from veterans as I witnessed and reported to security. The guard refused to even get out of his chair to go find the thug.
    Nothing has improved in the VA over more than 20 years of my experience with those quacks.

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