I had one when I saw this:
"The number of veterans on waiting lists of one month or more is now 50 percent higher than it was during the height of last year’s problems."
Meaning the scale of the problem is more vast than previously reported.
Time to phony up some more lists, huh?
"Despite health care push for veterans, lines lengthen; Budget shortfall jumps as service demand grows" by Richard A. Oppel Jr. New York Times June 20, 2015
NEW YORK — One year after outrage about long waiting lists for health care shook the Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency is facing a new crisis: The number of veterans on waiting lists of one month or more is now 50 percent higher than it was during the height of last year’s problems, department officials say.
The department is also facing a $2.7 billion budget shortfall, which could affect care for many veterans. The agency is considering furloughs, hiring freezes, and other significant moves to reduce the gap.
This after they were just given $17 billion by Congre$$!!!!
So who is stealing all the money, and why are so many VA administrators raking down six figure salaries?
A proposal to address a shortage of funds for one drug — a new, more effective but more costly hepatitis C treatment — by possibly rationing new treatments among veterans and excluding certain patients who have advanced terminal diseases or suffer from a “persistent vegetative state or advanced dementia” is stirring bitter debate inside the department.
Yes, soldier, it is in fact a DEATH PANEL that you were told did not exist. I'm not saying it's connected to Obummercare, but it does not have to be. They are talking about RATIONING HEALTH CARE to those who WENT TO WAR BASED on the LIES THEY WERE TOLD by the same people NOW ABANDONING THEM!
I mean, IF ANY HAS EARNED a LIFETIME of HEALTH CARE it is the VETERANS! And here they are being abandoned by the same government that cares so much about you, civilian citizen. It's time to realize this government cares for no one other than itself. It is because of the VA model that I do not want single-payer health care in this country. Let each state do its own thing.
Agency officials expect to petition Congress this week to allow them to shift money into programs running short of cash. But that may place them at odds with Republican lawmakers who object to removing funds from a new program intended to allow certain veterans on waiting lists and in rural areas to choose taxpayer-paid care from private doctors outside the department’s health system.
“Something has to give,” the department’s deputy secretary, Sloan D. Gibson, said in an interview. “We can’t leave this as the status quo. We are not meeting the needs of veterans, and veterans are signaling that to us by coming in for additional care, and we can’t deliver it as timely as we want to.”
Since the waiting-list scandal broke last year, the department has broadly expanded access to care. Its doctors and nurses have handled 2.7 million more appointments than in any previous year, while authorizing 900,000 additional patients to see outside physicians. In all, agency officials say, they have increased capacity by more than 7 million patient visits per year — double what they originally thought they needed to fix shortcomings.
But what was not foreseen, department leaders say, was just how much physician workloads and demand from veterans would continue to soar — by one-fifth, in fact, at some major veterans hospitals over just the past year.
According to internal department budget documents obtained by The New York Times, physician workloads — as measured by an internal metric known as “relative value units” — grew by 21 percent at hospitals and clinics in the region that includes Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina; by 20 percent in the Southern California and southern Nevada regions; and by 18 percent in North Carolina and Virginia.
And by the same measure, physician care purchased for patients treated outside the department grew by 50 percent in the region encompassing Pennsylvania and by 36 percent in the region that includes Michigan and Indiana.
Those data include multiple appointments by individual patients and reflect the fact that patients typically now schedule more appointments than they did in the past.
Yeah, it's the victim's, 'er, consumer, ah, patient's fault, yeah.
But even measured by the number of individuals being treated, the figures are soaring in many places: From 2012 to 2014, for example, the number of patients receiving treatment grew by 18 percent at the Las Vegas medical center; by 16 percent in Hampton, Va.; and by 13 percent in Fayetteville, N.C., and Portland, Ore.
Gibson said officials had been stunned by the number of new patients seeking treatment even as the VA had increased its capacity. He said he was frustrated that the agency was running short of funds.
I feel the same way, except I expected and warned, nay, screamed such things for years here. Said the back end of all these lies and such is going to lead to decades of unforeseen consequences; however, the war criminals running national policy don't give a damn. And why should they? They are profiting from it all.
'course, all us antiwar, anti-empire people who wanted to avoid all this are the traitors to the troops and unpatriotic subversives. Not a lying, looting, war-mongering government and their mouthpiece media.
He said he planned to tell Congress this week that the agency needed to be able to shift funds around to avoid a crisis this fiscal year. That includes using funds from a new program that was a priority for congressional Republicans called the “Choice Card,” which allows certain veterans to obtain taxpayer-funded care from private doctors.
And the mi$management continues!
--more--"
Related:
VA Gone Away
VA Finally Gets It Right
VA Finally Fixed
VA Whistleblower
Virginia and the VA
Virginia, Venezuela, and the VA
VA Day
And the problem of veteran homelessness is growing.
Also see: US to pay for Agent Orange exposure
Oh, yeah, they not only poisoned you in the long gone Vietnam era, but also the current round, what with chemical weapons
“They fought for their freedom; they shouldn’t be fighting for their benefits.”
I might argue with you a bit on the first one (they fought for bankers and Israel in these latest rounds since), but there is no debate on the second point.
NDU:
Sometimes you find things in the strangest places.
"According to a bipartisan report issued by Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, the Army National Guard paid NFL teams almost $7 million in taxpayer dollars for marketing and advertising contracts over the last three years. The Patriots in the last three years received $675,000 through contracts from the National Guard to conduct events that included honoring soldiers during halftime. The NFL issued a statement explaining the sponsored patriotism agreement (league donations to military nonprofit partners, etc.), but the statement did not deny that more than 20 NFL teams receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for sponsoring patriotic activities at games. In McCain’s report, he cited New England’s “True Patriot” program for which the team has been paid $675,000 for honoring soldiers at halftime. Patriots spokesperson Stacey James said, “We began honoring military at games long before we ever had any partnership with the National Guard and continue to honor all branches of military during games without any financial incentive.’’
I hope the mind-manipulating, military mind-set reinforcement is worth it, taxpayers.
You know, I don't like repeating myself day after day about rank rot corruption and this war government serving wealth through and through -- and yet there it i$ again.
