Thursday, August 07, 2014

Water Down $16.3 Billion, Long Under Funded, VA Bill - Pissing In The Tea Bucket

More pissing, conservative watered down, into them tea buckets in the still grossly under funded Veterans Administration budget, decades of and wars from especially the past decade plus, wars yet to be paid for with no offsets demanded as spent, and counting! As even this will be on borrowed funding, No Sacrifice From Those Served Especially The Wealthy!!

Long time want of conservatives, privatize for corporate profit off the peoples, not the wealthy, treasury! As still government agencies they would then stop obstructing much needed spending and build bigger budgets, that means more taxes for those served, not the wealthy, for th needed growth corporate bottom lines! Not in the poser patriot people served responsibility, the VA, especially as to wars and results of nor to fix problems even more numerous in the private sector! No accountability for those private sector corporations and as still government agencies the blame for problems would still be targeted at those working in the agencies!

That 'privatization' should have been more then obvious under the bush and the six years of tepublcan control in congress, and as well in states with same, with not only the wars and 'no bid contracts' but also the many other area's they readily rubber stamped! Easy wealth building profits and huge tax cuts for those who reaped!!

President Obama's remarks at signing of Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act
"“To care for him [or her] who shall have borne the battle.” That’s the heart of the VA’s motto. That’s what the bill I’m about to sign will help us achieve. But I want to be clear about something: This will not and cannot be the end of our effort. Implementing this law will take time. It’s going to require focus on the part of all of us. And even as we focus on the urgent reforms we need at the VA right now, particularly around wait lists and the health care system, we can’t lose sight of our long-term goals for our servicemembers and our veterans.

The good news is, we’ve cut the disability claims backlog by more than half. But let’s now eliminate the backlog. Let’s get rid of it. (Applause.) The good news is, we’ve poured major resources into improving mental health care. But now, let’s make sure our veterans actually get the care they need when they need it. The good news is, we’ve helped to get thousands of homeless veterans off the street, made an unprecedented effort to end veterans’ homelessness. We should have zero tolerance for that. But we’ve got to -- still more work to do in cities and towns across America to get more veterans into the homes they deserve. We’ve helped more than a million veterans and their spouses and children go to college through the post-9/11 GI bill. (Applause.) But now, we’ve got to help even more of them earn their educations, and make sure that they’re getting a good bargain in the schools they enroll in.

We’ve rallied companies to hire hundreds of thousands of veterans and their spouses. That’s the good news. With the help of Jill Biden and Michelle Obama -- two pretty capable women. (Laughter.) They know what they’re doing, and nobody says no to them, including me. (Laughter.) But now, we’ve got to help more of our highly skilled veterans find careers in this new economy." read more>>>

Obama signs veterans bill into law

Private sector lacks capacity, expertise to care for veterans
July 29, 2014 - Sadly, the simple truth that the VA provides high-quality care has been overshadowed by problems in the system designed to deliver that care. As we move forward with the process of correcting these systemic failures, we cannot ignore the fact that the VA’s quality of care simply cannot be replicated through privatization.

First, the private sector does not have the expertise to provide care for the unique needs of veterans, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, prosthetic's, conditions related to toxic exposure in war zones, or traumatic brain injury. The VA was designed to provide care for conditions unique to veterans. Much of this care is provided by veterans who understand the needs of veterans. This was made clear by the CEO of the American Hospital Association, who told the committee that the private sector will need time to understand the unique needs of veterans before it can meet demand.

Second, those in private practice do not share the same singular mission as the VA. In a recent hearing, representatives of major private care providers voiced concerns with reimbursement rates and speed, while repeatedly refusing to share with the committee their expected profit from expanding private care for veterans. The VA has a singular mission, as President Abraham Lincoln said: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.”

Finally, in Nevada and across the country, there is a shortage of private-sector doctors. The Silver State, as measured by the number of physicians for every 100,000 residents, is severely lacking in both generalists and specialists, including family practice doctors (46th in the country), pediatricians (46th), orthopedic surgeons (51st), ophthalmologists (48th), psychiatric physicians (50th), OB-GYNs (40th), and registered nurses (50th), according to University of Nevada School of Medicine researchers. We are doing a disservice to veterans by pushing them into an already overburdened private system. read more>>>

Will the cash from the VA healthcare overhaul help?
7 August 2014 - That’s why the feds will cover private doctor visits for veterans who either live 40 miles from a VA medical center or have waited more than 30 days for a visit. But Disabled American Veterans Executive Director Garry Augustine says vets, by and large, like what they get at the VA.

“The VA knows how to treat the post-traumatic stress. The different type of spinal cord injuries. Those are done better in the VA than any place else,” he says.

Surveys dating back a decade concur. They show vets are more satisfied with the care they receive at the VA than patients are with what they get in private sector hospitals.

Former VA administrator Dr. William Duncan says the challenge is providing timely care and keeping vets tethered to the VA. He knows peeling people away – even temporarily – means connecting them to other providers who may even be less functional.

“There’s a lot of doctor’s offices that are not electronic. It depends on paper. Paper gets lost. It’s a mess,” he says.

Duncan hopes the money to hire more doctors and nurses will add capacity to the VA, but he warns this money will only be well spent if the VA can build smart systems to track and treat their patients, too. read more>>>

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

More of the Presidents remarks:

"So America has to do right by all who serve under our proud flag. And Congress needs to do more, also. I urge the Senate, once again, to finally confirm my nominee for Assistant Secretary for Policy at the VA, Linda Schwartz; my nominee to lead the Board of Veterans Appeals, Constance Tobias; my nominee for CFO, Helen Tierney. Each of them have been waiting for months for a yes-or-no vote -- in Constance’s case for more than a year.

They’re ready to serve. They’re ready to get to work. It’s not that hard. It didn’t used to be this hard to just go ahead and get somebody confirmed who is well qualified. Nobody says they’re not. It’s just the Senate doesn’t seem to move very fast. As soon as the Senate gets back in September, they should act to put these outstanding public servants in place. Our veterans don’t have time for politics. They need these public servants on the job right now. (Applause.)" read more>>>

The Senate and House are the People's Served Representatives and what they do is what those who are served, and thus it's their responsibility, want!

From Kathie Costos DiCesare, PTS suffering Vietnam Veterans wife and known as the 'Nam Guardian Angel' long time and dedicated Veterans Advocate and Activist, a whole list of backlinked long time problems and no actions on, only to rise once more and be made into media feeding 'scandals' reporting, reported by those reaping the benefits of huge tax cuts on their upper income compensation. Visit to take a look:

Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees Snow Job
August 5, 2014 - The longer problems for veterans goes on, the more it seems as if the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees are pulling a snow job on veterans.

A new poll from NBC says voters are not happy with congress. Majority disapprove of their own House member but the other part of this is, "Americans’ frustration with Congress is reflected in other polls, too: just 3% said they thought Congress had been “very productive” this year in a recent NBC News/Marist poll."

Well, my fellow Americans, welcome to the world veterans have lived in for decades. They haven't been happy in, well, forever.

As much as I frankly do not like the national news stations, especially cable news, CNN did do a pretty good job of trying to explain how long veterans have suffered while members of congress just promised them everything, usually around election time and they needed the votes. Here are some highlights.

The VA's troubled history: read more>>>

Those served, the 99%, fully back, well some, actually most and especially conservative, the free wars, these recent ones have yet to be paid for! Representatives of, do complain "what more money, money won't fix, that would mean we should sacrifice also, we like 'scandal' reports and FOX speak on."!!

Those use those arguments about 'throwing money at' have already been doing that to continue the disruption and thus constant costly problems they then can blame on all the mostly dedicated agency workers! To fix problems monies have to come from those part of the budget, thus even more so greatly shorting the needs in under those budgeted funding, which then cause problems where none existed or were already growing as the country served ignored or denied, that's only PTSD how about gulf war syndrome, the costly problems even though heavily under funded to begin with and especially at times of wars and in the decades after! They might pass the occasional policies directed at Veterans, never saying anything about funding for, if passed and become law they are then used to attack the VA personal for not fully implementing, no matter how hard they tried to. The House Veterans Affairs Committee, under Rep Miller, is great at these constant attacks, with nothing done after the hearings, as he rushes to the camera's or written media to continue attacking, and he gets praised for doing so!


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