VA Secretary; aging veterans “created stress”
AZ Central reports that the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs is blaming the fact that Vietnam veterans are getting older, instead of dying, is what strains the resources of the Department;
“Our veteran population — particularly that population who fought during the Vietnam War — is aging,” McDonald said. “And the aging of that population is what created the stress on the system. Sound familiar? The VA is the canary in the coal mine.”
At Arizona’s VA medical facilities, which had experienced a surge of patients, results were devastating: “The week after I got this job, I went to Phoenix — the epicenter — and I discovered we were short 1,000 (medical) providers,” said the secretary. “And we were short clinical space.”
McDonald touted a hiring program, increased referrals for private treatment under a Veterans Choice program, and other reforms that he said have dramatically improved service to veterans.
Yeah, so why is the Obama Administration trying to do away with the Veterans’ Choice program? I’m still getting messages from people every day who ask me about it – they’re just finding out about the program that is supposed to take some of the pressure off the VA. I guess it was about a month ago that I just got my card and already the Obama Administration is calling it a failure and trying to get money back out of the program – they weren’t so quick to cancel the Obamacare program when participation was anemic at first, were they? But, hey, it’s only veterans.
If you were really concerned about the country, you’d hurry up and die – you’d really be helping the VA Secretary out if you would. M’kay?
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
“Quacky Macky” here is full of it.
I really think the guy is just marking time. I met him and I was less than impressed. He knows what he needs to do. Hell, he ran a fortune 500 company. He just is hesitant to do it.
His new thing is to hire as many Veteran’s as he can into the VA while paying for their school.
While an admirable approach, who wants to work for the VA? A toxic system. The one good thing about working for the VA is that it is damn near impossible to be fired.
Maybe they could hire Dr. Oz.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/more-than-1000-doctors-say-dr-oz-should-resign/ar-BBiG5Th
This idiot just doesn’t want to upset his a.h. buddy obozo! The VA wouldn’t be stressed if the a.h. in the white house wasn’t WASTING trillions of dollars! As for aging causing problems…its only “aging” worthless phucking politicians that are causing the problems!
So; they don’t want you to smoke, because it’s unhealthy. They want you to eat healthy, keep your cholesterol, BP, and sugar in check. They want you to exercise and do all the other things they say you need to do to live a long and healthy life. Then they complain because you ain’t tipping over fast enough.
Dumbasses
If a person took their advice they probably wouldn’t need to visit the doctor as often…..
Lee hit the nail on the head. Coming from someone who administers a self-insured program for an organization, it’s not so much the aging as it is aging plus terrible lifestyle. Granted, veterans are going to be more broken down than the average person just because of job stressors, but combine aging and normal veteran wear and tear with smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise, weight gain, etc. and we get a laundry list of medical problems.
We’re not dying fast enough?
No surprise here. This is a completely predictable and foreseeable consequence of Shinsecki’s 2009 decision to grant “presumptive Agent Orange” exposure to everyone who ever set foot in Vietnam (and a whole lot of other places as well) vice requiring proof of likelihood of actual exposure. That decision made virtually anyone who served in SEA eligible for VA medical care for a whole slew of aging-related conditions without proof of either exposure or demonstration of service connection. And since many if not most people who reach their 60s and older will end up needing treatment for such conditions – heart disease, prostate cancer, and a whole host of other aging-related conditions are on the list – it’s a virtual guarantee that the VA system will end up treating many if not most Vietnam vets for those conditions.
It’s also a predictable outcome of subsidizing healthcare in general. Canadian system under stress. British system under stress. “Rationed care”, coming soon to a VA and Obamacare system near you. God forbid they have an understanding of economics before they concoct these “benefits”.
To my point: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3056621/Over-75-Sign-ready-death-GPs-ask-older-patients-ll-agree-not-resuscitate-order.html
NHS guidelines urging General Practitioners to ask all of their patients over 75 years of age to sign a Do Not Resuscitate order. “In some surgeries, nurses are cold-calling patients over 75 or with long-term conditions and asking them over the phone if they have ‘thought about resuscitation’. Other patients have spoken of the shock of going in for a routine check-up and being asked about resuscitation.”
Next time they get in a bind, they will lower it to 70, then 65, etc. Why? Because it preserves the system…. pensions, bonuses, and all.
GDContractor, the Daily Mail is a UK paper, not a US paper. That article re: the NHS applies only to the British National Health System. It has nothing to do with any of us.
Besides, if anyone asked me that, knowing my family history, I expect to live well into my 90s and would tell any GP or anyone else I’ll outlive them, and the answer is a resounding ‘NO’.
Yes, I am aware that Daily Mail is UK. also aware that we don’t have an NHS in the USA.
My point was
When you say it has nothing to do with us, well yeah…. not yet. Please tell me why rationed care will not come to the VA and to Obamacare at large. To me it’s inevitability is a no-brainer.
Oh, didn’t say that won’t happen, but if Medicare is substituted for VA health care (which is possible, what does that become? I have kept my two letters that say my Medicare/VA health care meet the standards for howbadismycare and I also have that contact letter, so where do I go from here?
If I were 94, I’d say DNR is feasible. But when I hit 75 and I’m perfectly healthy, why should I sign off on something so heinously indicative of inhumane treatment?
You’re assuming that we’ll be required to sign off on DNR, when the article indicates that people with severe illnesses are those being asked in the UK, NOT someone like me who is basically healthy. I wouldn’t not ignore it, but I would also guess that it will not become something we’re expected or coerced into signing.
It would go a long way towards explaining why a certain non-CPO gets 100% disability, despite never having set foot in RVN during his service.
And whike the left wants to cry about how overburdened the VA system was/is because of Iraq and Afghanistan vets, truth is that right now they’re making up barely 10% of VA caseload.
Hondo, recently I read (can’t remember where) that Agent Orange was sprayed along the DMZ in Korea, about the time I was there. ‘Spose some enterprising sole couldn’t get his ticker fixed at VA because of it?
OC
You might have seen it in VA documentation:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/locations/korea.asp
If you (or someone you know) served there during the specified time frame and have one of the diseases listed as presumptive – and it’s one without a time limit for manifestation of symptoms – that individual should qualify as having “presumptive exposure” to Agent Orange. The individual will, however, have to prove service there during that time frame and will also have to provide evidence of having one of the covered conditions.
Hondo: Ever see this? http://www.johntreed.com/agentorange.html
Curious as to what you and others think about this…
He has some valid points – as well as a number of distortions and some outright errors.
Agent Orange itself is not as harmful as one might believe – it’s a strong herbicide, so you have to be careful, but it’s not particularly toxic. However, some of the subcontractors who produced it used a defective process that produced relatively high levels of dioxins. (I seem to remember it was one out of several contractors, and maybe only one facility – but I could be in error.) Dioxins are truly bad stuff: long-lasting, hugely toxic, and they do have long-term seriously bad effects on humans (and other living things as well). It was the dioxin contamination, not Agent Orange, that was to blame for the vast majority of the problems associated with “Agent Orange”.
I tend to agree with him overall, that the Agent Orange issue was poorly handled and that the government used exceptionally bad judgement in granting a “blanket pass” regarding same for anyone who ever set foot in Vietnam. But some people were indeed screwed up by it due to dioxin contamination in some batches of the herbicide.
Thanks. I always like seeing your insights.
Hondo
Great knowledge and info. The whole mess with the VA. At times confuse the crap out of me, the link you told me to read a few months ago puts the whole mess in to Perspective, its amazing how the number of vets has shrunk over the last 25 years, but in real 2012 dollars. The budget has gone in to space.
I can’t imagine being treated by the VA system. Yes, I pay for my medical care, but I also get the definite impression that my doctor does actually care about my health. I can’t say the same about the VA doctors who treat my ex, and at least once, they came very close to killing him with indifference.
I am sorry to hear that you have had that experience. Mine has been completely the oppositte… Well since I came back to the VA for my health care 5 years ago. I have had nothing but respectful, and timely care for my Service Connected, and non service connected health care issues (and I have a lot of them).
VA Health care is far from perfect, but a large number of these issues also exist in the Private sector as well, and there is nowhere near the level of oversight to shine a light on it.
My beautiful bride to be, her first husband was killed by piss poor healthcare in one of the areas “best” hospitals. he had been transferred to it out of an abundance of caution by a local hospital, and less than 8 hours later he was dead from botched procedures and delays in his care there.
Each year hundreds of thousand die from Malpractice in private sector health care in this country alone.
Yes, we need to fix the VA. It is doable though, but it has to start at the top somewhere, and despite all the rhetoric I do believe the new Secratary has his heart and mind in the right place.
Agreed. I have been using the VA for about 5 years now and have been fortunate. Only had two crappy docs and both were drummed out in a short period of time.
Many will tell you, its not the health care providers they have issues with, its the administrators and bureaucrats in the system that are the problem. The people you need to deal with to get to the doctors are the pain.
Some have their issues of course, but I haven’t had any complaints about the docs or nurses I’ve dealt with. Physical therapists, etc etc.
He is right, and despite the editorial license taken with his comments it is not because the aging Vets won’t just die.
The fact that Congress and Shinseki opened up a massive can of worms by expanding Agent Orange covereage to anyone who stepped foot in Vietnam(with no requirement of even remotely being exposed), even if for one day is a huge part of the increase in veterans coming into VA Health care, and filing claims for disability with the VA.
The fact that VA completely fell behind the 8 ball when they saw this massive influx of veterans into the system, at a time when we also were starting to see the influx of Veterans of OIF, and OEF… it coincided to create a perfect storm that crushed an already strained system. VA under Shinseki did little to acknowledge the root casues, and just put on bandaids, with Congress only more than willing to thrown more money at the problem in ways that were not productive, and did nothing to fix the greater issues at the VA in general. The culture has to change, the waywe do business has to change, and they needed to fix that but didn’t because it was politically easier to look like they were doing something by throwing more money at the problem.
The entire VA system needs to be overhauled… not just how vets are cared for but the eligibility rules for things like Agent Orange exposure, POW status etc., to be aligned with the DoD’s definition. Also, Civil Service reform – get rid of those employees that are incompetent, criminals or just “collecting a paycheck” (no more of putting the shitbags on “paid leave/vacation”). The culture at the VA needs to change and it will only change with a top to bottom housecleaning – and someone needs to do it.
If all else fails, then vets should be able to get medical care anywhere, at the VA’s expense – the VA’s problems with taking care of vets has been an ongoing one for years, no matter if the Donks or the GOP is running the show.
I agree wholeheartedly. However, Civil Service ended at the VA in the early to mid 80’s. The hiring is now supposed to be done through OPM guidelins, and in theory it is supposed to eliminate a lot of the nepotism/favoritsm in hiring and promotions. Under the old Civil Service System, it was far easier to abuse. It still is to some degreee and OPM does little to investigate the practices of the local HR offices.
Firing people… I hate the Union, and can think of several folks who had their asses saved by the Union who should have been fired. At the same time, I can think of a large number who have been targeted with false accusation, due to “personality conflicts” and even in attempts to eliminate them from being elligible for a position that was opening up.
The culture is such that you have a lot of good people who just try and keep their heads down, so as to not being taken out in a vendetta and the bad apples not giving a shit because they feel invincible.
We need a house cleaning for certain, I give the new Sec. some credit for even trying. I can imagine at the level he is at with the lifers, it is going to be hard to effect change with them as they work to protect their fifedoms.
Thanks for the corrected info rb325th… there needs to be a better way of cleaning house than what the union/OPM have in place. The culture needs to change and someone with a “big set of brass ones” needs to do it.
McDonald is just a caretaker until the next election, and appears to be trying to change things, but how much can he do in 20 months?
I don’t know how much he can do, but when the animosity is coming at him from all directions, there is little he can do or say that is not going to be taken out of context, and tossed back at him like a live grenade.
VA Wide E-mails pleading that we refocus, stop the petty bull shit, and do our jobs (my words, paraphrasing his messages in blunter terms). Is his message being heard? will he make a difference? I don’t know, I do hope so though. Has to start somewhere, and as badly as this administration has screwed the pooch in all areas… going to take some time to fix all their fuckups.
I won’t be around for the day but I would be willing to wager that this same conversation will be taking place when the Global War on Terror Vets are my age (66). I just think the federal government has no chance of changing, no matter who is in power.
News Flash:
Veterans Choice does not work.
The VA is not uploading appointments into the system.
The contractors who run the program are throwing their hands up in the air and still collecting the millions of dollars to administer the failed program.
The VA has contributed to my failing health, they are billing my private insurance for service connected disabilities, NO ONE at the VA replies to any correspodance and I see NO releif in the future.
That is all.
“The contractors who run the program are throwing their hands up in the air and still collecting the millions of dollars to administer the failed program. ”
Kinda like what APL does and FirsTech wants to do?
Well, it certainly appears that the VA did its part in helping to reduce costs. How many Veterans died while awaiting tests to be scheduled? Bureaucrats always point to funding as the panacea for his agency’s inability to provide services. ‘Give all that we ask for or else.’ Or, as Mickey D said in his testimony, “You either have to give the whole budget, or you have to cut the benefits.” Meanwhile, remember Tom Coburn’s report on VA waste? There was that $489 million spent on office makeovers– in less than five years! There was $5 million spent on unused computer software. There was $50,000 spent on the production of a parody of the movie “Patton.” Those are a few of the highlights. And if we want to go to capital waste, we are talking billions in cost-estimate overruns and maintenance of vacant buildings. So, no, the problem isn’t more money or longer-living Vets. The problem is mismanagement and poor management and bureaucrats running a healthcare system. Personally, I think that all of the problems would soon disappear if only Mickey D took a page from Shenseki’s book and issued all VA employees orange berets.
Here’s an eye-opener that I used in my final MBA paper in September – from Coburn’s report:
“Billions of dollars left unspent from Fiscal Year 2013 in both obligated and unobligated funds – the best estimate is that this figures is in excess of $34 billion (Coburn, page 54).”
How many vets waiting for care could be taken care of using that money for medical care outside the VA system?
Sorry, bubba, but my dying this week would not help the VA at all because I refuse to further clog up the system by signing up for it. Yeah, there are some services from the VA that I qualify for, but I will NOT become part of the problem much less have my paperwork contribute in even a miniscule way to delaying medical service to another vet who needs it.
All you bureaucrats who show up at various veteran events insisting that I sign up can just go blow. How’s about sending some time eliminating the phonies from the system instead of encouraging them to drain resources from others?
Only the top guy can demand that protocols be put into place which rid us of all those phony POWs and phony Purple Heart recipients. They are frauds, with the VA encouraging, and frequently perpetrating, the fraud.
Fucking old people, why can’t they just die and leave the good stuff for the younger folks?
Well at least Social Security doesn’t have an entire generation of Baby Boomers getting old all at the same time and stressing the system..oh wait, shit whatever will we do?
I guess we could keep electing the same assholes who don’t do anything to restructure or adjust the system but are quick to suggest reducing benefits as a solution. As if impoverishing millions of our veterans and elderly is any kind of solution…that’s brilliant.
Next thing you know they’ll be trying to explain how the troops like less money, and how the A-10 is a drag on the F35 Junk Strike Fighter or how Ted Cruz is an American but Obama wasn’t or how….or how a tattoo below your elbow makes you a lousy Marine or Soldier…
I’m sure the two parties will offer up a candidate well suited to resolving all this, but that person won’t win the nomination because we need another corporatist.
Of course as long as we keep framing the debate as one of leftist middle class against rightist middle class we fucking morons won’t notice that the 1% have been doing just fine all through the last 8 years and they aren’t complaining at all…we’re all pretty much to fucking stupid to realize that both parties are placing a corporatist candidate at the forefront and your choice will come down to a corporatist like Hillary, or one like Jeb…and the sad part is a great many idiots will actually believe that’s some kind of real choice…
Class warfare? No, there isn’t any class warfare that battle has already been fought and won. The losers are just too stupid to realize their position, and the winners are quite happy to continue exploiting that reality.
Last paragraph – truer words were never spoke. A I have stated before – the only difference between France late 1780’s and us now is that we have a plutocracy instead of an aristocracy.
i volunteer at the va and from what I see a big problem with the va is that not enough veterans are working there. I worked at the va in 1976 as a common laborer and quit because there were too many clowns almost all of whom were not veterans and almost all of whom have moved up into management positions. Most of these have risen to their level of incompetency taking the entire system down with them. As a volunteer I try just try to make sure that the va experience is initially good for everyone. I drive a golf cart in the parking lot.
When have you ever seen an efficient government program? Government isn’t designed to be cost effective or efficient and when they create a program, it is never efficient, because you all are forgetting the one dynamic that screws it all up; politicians.
I think you forgot Bureaucrats, they also do a great job of being lazy, wasteful, and arrogant as well as screwing thing up!
Most bureaucrats are masters at internal politics, PI. That’s a major part of how they get appointed to their positions and attain their next one.
No, I didn’t forget them. I didn’t want it to look like I was piling on.
All anyone has to do is look around at government agencies and they will see that everyone complains about any of them at some point. Public sector unions can take a lot of the blame for the bureaucratic attitude that has given us the high level of mediocraty that we have come to know and loathe.
The correct way to look at a bureaucracy is as an organism, not an organization. Its primary roles are survival and growth, and any ancillary activity (like medical care for veterans, energy policy, diplomatic relations etc.) are tertiary functions. The mistake is in perceiving those tertiary functions as primary. It all makes sense when you look at it that way.
“Our veteran population — particularly that population who fought during the Vietnam War — is aging,” McDonald said. “And the aging of that population is what created the stress on the system. Sound familiar? The VA is the canary in the coal mine.”
Well now that’s it boy and girls. The hand writing is on the wall. We just gotta start dying off sooner and that will fix this whole VA mess. That’s all there is to it. If this new VA Clown In Charge wants to speed up the process, just rehire the Phoenix VA Health Care System Director Sharon Helman. She’ll make sure they start dropping over like insects in a bug zapper. I mean, that was her forte and long suit after all. In fact I think I’ll cancel my next appointment and just go ahead and kick the bucket. Every one helps after all.
No, Sparks, don’t do it. Don’t kick the bucket. Stay above ground with the rest of us.
My response to Mr.”Army? What unit? Special Forces? What Years? I was in Special Forces” McDonald is simply this: Buzz Off!! I’m gonna stick around for a while longer just to aggravate the hell out of you and if I’m creating stress for you, so be it.
Thanks for piling more shit onto the shoulders of the living Vietnam veterans. We were just beginning to feel a little better about ourselves here on a nice Spring day in America.
CLAW131, Thanks brother. On second thought, screw him and I’ll live as long as God allows me to. I’m not kicking any buckets, even when I do go. Pinch a nurse’s boob, yea sure, if I get the chance but at that point what are they gonna to do…take my birthday away? 😀 😀 😀
Yep, every day above ground is gravy. I’ll take mine in the form of sausage gravy over homemade biscuits with fried eggs and bacon on the side.
But if they had their way, they would bend our dog tags, tear up our ID cards, then put us on a Flying Tigers stretch DC-10 back to the land of the little PX and be done with us.
Remember, it’s way lots cheaper to fork over that $200.00 for a funeral benefit than trying to actually care for us.
Re: “I’ll take mine in the form of sausage gravy over homemade biscuits with fried eggs and bacon on the side.”
No SOS? I’ll take SOS any day! And with greasy hamburger and not pussy dried beef!
The VA Health system needs to be privitized… oh wait, we can’t do that, we just spent over a half a billion (some say over $2 billion) to set up a website for gubberment Obama care…
“Everyone step right up and take a number. Old fogies to the front, your dirtnap cocktails are a awaiting…”
If you’re injured on the job, your employer is liable for workers’ compensation coverage. The military is your employer and if you sustain an injury/disability that affects you permanently, the VA is liable for your care, whether that gasbag likes it or not.
Sorry, Secy Mac or whatever your name is, I am not going to curl up in a corner and die just to please your budgetary sensibilities. If you don’t like it, tough bananas, because I don’t care.
Stop yer whining and solve the problem that you were hired to solve. It does NOT include kicking vets to the curb, just because you walked in and looked around.
Let me get this straight…
The system that was set up to help the veterans, can’t help the veterans. The reason it can’t help the veterans is because they are living longer. Rather than spend money on things that actually matter, they are instead building facilities for vastly over budget and taking lavish vacations with bonuses they didn’t earn.
Yup, sounds like the government to me.
Does the fact that most of our Vietnam veterans are now in their 60’s and 70’s create an increase in demand?
I’m sure it does.
But at the same time, most of the WWII and Korea vets, who were far greater in number, have mostly died off, greatly reducing system demand.
Net result? Probably little to no change in actual patient load, or a slight reduction. So tell me again how this is an issue in the big picture?
Silentium Est Aureum: that would be a negative. Historically, the VA only provided routine healthcare for a small portion (10-20%) of vets from World War II and Korea – those with compensible disabilities, and then generally not all their healthcare. For Vietnam Vets, that percentage will be close to 100% – and it will be for life, and probably ALL their healthcare – because most will eventually qualify for at least Priority Group II, and many for Group I. In the 2000s, Congress and the VA Secretary dramatically expanded eligibility for Vietnam Veterans by adding a list of “presumptive conditions” associated with service in the RVN. The VSOs were instrumental in getting this passed. This was done through the legal presumption (38 USC 1116) that any service in Vietnam constituted exposure to Agent Orange, whether in fact an individual actually was exposed or not. That’s true even if their time in Vietnam was a one-day visit during a port-call or TDY vice a year-long tour of duty. No proof of actual exposure is required. Ditto for service on a long list of Navy ships, including many serving far offshore vice “brown water”, and at several other locations worldwide where Agent Orange was tested or used – including the Korean DMZ between 1968 and 1971. The legal presumption also means that if certain health problems develop within specified time limits, the condition is automatically deemed to be service connected – NQA. And it gets even better: many of the conditions have no specified time limits. Over the years, more conditions have been added to the list. Today the list now includes type II diabetes, heart disease, prostate cancer, and various lung and circulatory system cancers (the lung and circulatory system cancers were on the original listing, if I recall correctly; prostate cancer and heart disease are relatively recent additions; can’t remember if diabetes is a recent addition or not, but I think it is). Those diseases are all also generally linked with aging, heredity, or both. So instead of providing healthcare for the historical norm of 10-20% of troops who served… Read more »
You Vietnam folks just need to move along.
Just Kidding – Smiles all around!!!
OK,GT, I will move along, just as soon as I get a new leg welded back onto my walker.
I had to break one of them off yesterday morning in the ass of that smelly Wal-Mart Bum with the cardboard sign.
The feeling of satisfaction was PRICELESS!!
Big Smiles.
Nice.
Want a little spit in your coffee, GT? 🙂
I want to be clear – my VA doctor at the local VA clinic is the most empathetic and understanding doctor that I’ve ever had. The doctor at the DC VA hospital who treated me for my heart attack in 2000 was a wonderful and skillful fellow. It’s not the doctors or the nurses at the VA who get my goat – it’s the admin people who stand between them and me.
Well, do what you can for the younger veterans, have a cigar, cheap Scotch, and don’t be afraid to use salt.
I feel so bad about the state of things I am having a bowl of boiled down cholesterol for dinner and I am washing it down with a quart of high fructose corn syrup.
My Doctors are even understanding to the point that I tell them, “Pepsi is my only vice, I’m not giving it up.”
I don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t party all night, I’m fairly boring. So, they can’t take away my Pepsi and they placate me on that one. Except the nutritionists that are 98 pounds soaking wet. Yeah, the ones that make me wanna bring them a sammich.
It goes both ways, though.
Many MD’s and PhD’s move into administrate positions due to their education as they are needed to create, reinforce and sign off on policy. Patient care falls bay the wayside in many cases, as do medical ethics.
Why do you think the VA Regional Counsel(s) and VA General Counsel are so busy?
While there are good ones, many have sold out.
Just ask Caroline Clancy.
And in 20 years, they’ll be telling us OIF/OEF vets “Oh hey, by the way, you were exposed to all this crap there, so we’ll take care of you.”
And then Secretary McFuckstick will tell us we are living too long. Especially since in 20 years people will be living even longer than they do now.
The average lifespan is higher than it was in the 70s, which was higher than it was in the 40s, and so on.
Oh and maybe you Vietnam guys are living longer just to be obstinate and cause stress to SecMac. Well played gents, well played.
I use my wifes medical, being retired from Kaiser she has great retirment medical coverage. About every other rx refill I take to VA just to make sure I stay in the system. I have never had an issue with VA other than getting an appointment and that is why I started going to Kaiser about 3 years ago. I felt like crap, hacking, coughing, couldn’t do a walk-in or next day appt with VA but was able to get a same day appt with Kaiser, Doc checked me out, sent me to X-ray, checked those and told me that I had pneumonia. Appointment time has been my only complaint about VA.
A question from ignorance.
A gent down the street is retired Coast Guard. As I understand it, his only service connected disability is hearing loss (10%). He never saw combat, deployed in a hostile area, etc. He came down with Parkinson’s. VA is putting in an elevator and modifying his bathroom.
I don’t begrudge him that and he and his family certainly need that. I just didn’t know that VA would do that for a gent who has TriCare.
How does that work?
That’s hard to say SJ. There’s not enough information to elaborate too much on this. There are many possibilities to that.
There could be other unknown issues at play here.
Also, I’ve gotten support thru “grants” for other medical services from the VA myself. They coordinated for them without even telling me. I thought it was from them, but they only got it from somewhere else
Eric’s point is valid, sj – lots of unknowns here. However, the man would be Priority Group II due to his 10% service-connected disability. So he’d qualify for VA medical care (with copayments, unless he had low enough income for a copayment waiver) on that basis. If he’s badly enough affected by his Parkinson’s (or some other health condition) for the VA to consider him “catastrophically disabled” he’d also qualify for a copayment waiver.
The VA also has a number of construction/special equipment programs that could be in play. I don’t know much about those programs other than that they exist. However, those who the VA considers “catastrophically disabled” may qualify even if the underlying cause isn’t service-connected if they’re otherwise qualified for VA healthcare. Due to his VA rating for hearing loss, he does qualify for VA healthcare.
My guess is that he applied for and got help from one of those construction/special needs programs. But that’s only a guess.
[…] Conservative: GoFundMe Shuts Down Fundraiser For Christian-owned Bakery This Ain’t Hell: VA Secretary Says Aging Veterans “Created Stress” Weasel Zippers: Baltimore Riots Tweet Of The Night Megan McArdle: Accused Gets His Say In Columbia […]