Clarification
This is for all of the people who don’t understand what the VA health care system actually is, which seemingly includes most of Congress.
The VA system is a network of actual clinics and hospitals where veterans receive health care. Like all health care systems there are a lot of ‘bureaucrats’. The average private sector hospital has many more clerks than medical personnel when compared to a VA hospital. The VA system is always rated at or near the top in studies involving effectiveness and efficiency in the health care sector.
While there has been a small annual fee instituted under the G.W. Bush administration, there are no co-pays and medication is provided free of charge. The major problem with the system has been the limited number of clinics and hospitals, not the quality of the care received. Veterans have to travel long distances if they don’t live near an existing VA facility.
The people suggesting that the VA system be replaced by Medicare don’t seem to understand all of the costs that Medicare recipients have to cover, costs that have created the market for so-called ‘Medi-Gap’ insurance, and the need to obtain a separate Part D insurance policy for assistance in purchasing medication. This replacement would shift significant costs to the veterans, but, then, the people complaining about the ‘huge VA bureaucracy’ don’t actually give a damn about veterans as anything other than a backdrop for a photo op.
The VA provides health care – Medicare provides health insurance. They are not the same.
May 27, 2014 Comments Off on Clarification
