This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veteran Health Care

  • VA’s Tech Office playground

    DefendUSA sends me this link from Townhall about an IG report from the VA which details the antics of the VA’s Technology Office;

    In scathing reports this week, the VA’s inspector general said thousands of technology office employees at the VA received the bonuses over a two-year period, some under questionable circumstances. It also detailed abuses ranging from nepotism to an inappropriate relationship between two VA employees.

    The inspector general accused one recently retired VA official of acting “as if she was given a blank checkbook” as awards and bonuses were distributed to employees of the Office of Information and Technology in 2007 and 2008.

    One supervisor struck up an “inappropriate relationship” with an employee in Florida and flew that employee back and forth to Washington – your cost; 37 grand. The official who ran the office, Jennifer S. Duncan, also charged some educational benefits to the tax payers for her family – to the tune of 140 grand.

    You’ll be happy to know that Katie Roberts, a VA spokesperson reassures us that, “VA does not condone misconduct by its employees….” I was wondering.

    There’s little wonder at this point about why there’s a backlog of caseloads at VA, i wish I could blame Shinseki for this, but apparently it’s been going on for a few years. Let’s see if he can straighten it out – without buying a few billion dollars worth of hats from China.

  • That Republican conspiracy against healthcare

    Obama told a talk show host this morning that he sees a Republican conspiracy against him and not necessarily against his health care plan (Washington Times link);

    “I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, ‘Look, let’s not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, ’94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out that playbook,” the president said.

    So our opposition to his health care plan is because we don’t like him – everything is about him these days. Except that’s not necessarily true in my case – and I suspect, it’s not true in your case either.

    Next month, I turn 54 years old, and I began planning for my retirement health care when I was 19 when I joined the Army. I kind of liked the idea that when I broke my hand in basic training, the Army provided me with medical attention. It wasn’t the best, but it worked. OK, so I have one crooked finger, now. I could still shoot straight.

    A few years later, I got married and my son was born a year later. Health care for him was almost free. It was one of the things I considered when I reenlisted. I accepted my low pay because the Army took care of my family health-wise. So that became part of my old-age planning.

    Now, as I near my final retirement, this Obama fellow tells me, after paying for my own health care with my youth, I owe for someone else’s health care. Someone who wouldn’t join the military, someone who is just sitting on their ass waiting for Obama to hand them some free health care – at my expense.

    Am I worried Obama will succeed at changing my health care system? Not particularly – I have the VSOs sticking up for me which is I why I joined a few. What I’m most worried about is that while my income is reduced after I retire, I’m going to be saddled with paying for some derelict’s family health care.

    Am I being selfish? Not as selfish as that lazy SOB who won’t insure his own family. And I don’t want to hear that he’s too poor to afford insurance for his family – if he’s poor, why is he dragging kids into his poverty?

    Not everyone in America has military health care – yet 86% of people living in this country are covered by their own health insurance. We were all responsible and took care of our respective families, how does that make us responsible for some other schlub’s poor choices?

  • A preview of death panels from VA

    In the Wall Street Journal, Jim Towey exposes the use of death counseling at VA;

    Last year, bureaucrats at the VA’s National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, “Your Life, Your Choices.” It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA’s preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated “Your Life, Your Choices.”

    Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

    Funny how this program gets switched back on when this administration comes in. But then veterans’ care is the government laboratory for administering it’s own civilian health care plans.

  • Blue Dogs and VSOs saved vet health care in House

    For those of you skeptics (namely Brandon Friedman, formerly of VoteVets) who said that Democrats wouldn’t harm veteran health care, take a look at this morning’s Wall Street Journal;

    We’re still sorting through the health-care deal Henry Waxman struck with Blue Dog Democrats recently, but one 11th-hour revision stands out. Namely, veterans will now be “exempt from the requirements of the legislation.”

    That’s how Mr. Waxman’s staff put it in a memo to reporters earlier this month, announcing amendments that the House Energy and Commerce Committee included before passing the bill 31 to 28. These changes were designed to assuage the “grave concerns” of the American Legion, Amvets and others about how their members could be penalized by new taxes and insurance regulations.

    We’re delighted service members will be let off this particular hook, but why doesn’t everyone else warrant the same dispensation? Or to put it another way, Mr. Waxman is conceding that his plan will interfere with all insurance arrangements that aren’t exempted, including private options that are working well.

    Yeah, see, if the Blue Dogs (and Republicans, btw) hadn’t held out, and if the American Legion and AMVETs hadn’t made such a stink, the Democrat Congress would’ve gone merrily on their way to make veteran healthcare too expensive for most of us. I’d like to think that it was out of ignorance, but I tend to think it was completely thoughtless.

    For decades, Democrats have attempted to fund their attempts to buy political patronage with money meant for veterans and the military. I’ll admit that so far, this administration has been very good to veterans, but that hasn’t come without vigilance as regular readers of this blog know.

  • Do Democrats understand Veteran care

    1stCavRVN11B sent us a link from Red State (by way of Free Republic, by way of Freedom’s Lighthouse) of Congressman Kratovil of Maryland who gets a question from a boy who is worried about the veteran care his grandfather will receive under Obama care. Kratovil puts the boy’s fear at ease by telling him that he’s really concerned about veteran suicide rates.

    What? Gramp-gramp is gonna kill himself? Is that all Democrats know about veteran care – we’re a bunch of crack pots on the edge of killing ourselves and taking someone else with us? Good way to avoid answering the boy’s thoughtful question. Better way to tell us you don’t understand the question.

  • Obama promises to keep VA care separate from his plan

    rehbeinobama

    The American Legion National Commander, David K. Rehbein met privately with the President this morning and left with a promise that the President will keep his hands off of Veterans’ care in his bloated, sweeping plan to rope the rest of America into something they don’t need;

    “(I) got his very strong assurance the VA as our veterans know it will continue to exist,” said National Commander David K. Rehbein. “It will not be diluted or folded into some sort of national system and that the folks who go to the VA…that will be considered their insurance, so any insurance requirements (will be met) simply by being enrolled in the VA.”

    Of course there’s another problem, too, getting enrolled;

    The vexing problem of a dramatically growing backlog of VA benefits claims was also considered by the two. Rehbein said he feels the president “fully appreciates” its gravity and will do what he can to aid in its solution.

    It seems to me that Shinseki would have solved that one by now, but that’s just me, because I had such high hopes for the guy who single-handedly got the whole Army new hats from China.

    But the fact that VSOs had to go get a guarantee from the President that he wouldn’t touch veterans’ care has me worried.

    Rehbein, obviously pleased with the meeting’s outcome, characterized the 25-minute White House chat as “very friendly…conversational in style” in which “issues were discussed rather than positions being presented.”

    From The Armorer;

    I’ve also heard that TRICARE will not be affected. And, we know Congress won’t be affected. The rest of you however…

  • AL Cdr to Obama; Hands off Vet Health Care

    With all of this talk about altering the health care system in this country, the American Legion Commander, David Rehbein, spoke up the other day for veterans;

    The national commander of the nation’s largest veterans service organization has reacted to tonight’s urgent call by President Obama for national health care reform.

    “While The American Legion appreciates the complexity of the healthcare reform challenge facing the president and Congress,” said David K. Rehbein, “on behalf of our nation’s 26-million veterans and the nearly two million personnel now on active duty in more than 130 countries, we urge Congress to ensure that veterans’ and military health care not be part of any national health care bill. They should be exempt in the legislation.”

    Rehbein added, “Our nation must maintain its long standing tradition that veterans’ and military health care systems will remain independent and focused on our most deserving citizens.

    “The American Legion has a proud tradition of securing and preserving the earned benefits of America’s veterans,” Rehbein said. “Ensuring timely access to quality healthcare for today’s military and veterans is of paramount concern. These are the citizens who have borne our battles in previous wars as they still are in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have earned our care the hard way. We, as a nation, have an obligation to ensure that their healthcare is not compromised,” he concluded.

    This is an issue that’s near and dear to my heart. Military Health Care has been the foundation of my financial planning since I decided to reenlist back in 1977. I knew that I’d have meager paychecks for the rest of my career, but I’d tolerate that for quality, dependable health care for me and my family. A lot of folks complain about military care, but I’ve never had a problem with it and I’d hate to be thrown out of military care for some kind of social program.

    Now, I don’t hear any other VSO standing up for veterans’ health care in this way. The American Legion commander also stood up to the President on the issue of forcing disabled, service-connected veterans into the insurance pool. It seems to me that because of the whole insurance thing, this administration would love to throw veterans into the general population for our health care just to save money, irrespective of the quality of care.

    I’d like to see some sort of unified response from all of the VSOs on this issue, instead of some touting their free rides for veterans or campaigning for the end of DADT. Veteran health care has always been the first casualty of budget cuts, so I applaud the American Legion’s National Commander for leading the way and making a preemptive strike.

    Added: For the record, and in response to an email I saw passed around today, this is NOT our new logo;

    tal