Veterans at the va

[Planning]

today i went to the VA hospital for some more test. you get a lot of waiting time. the care is very good, but there are just a lot of disabled vets there and it takes a while. we get to talk a lot.

one thing that has come up is travel pay to and from the VA for test or to see a DR.

we get $.415 a mile,(you have to be at least 30% service connected disabled to collect travel pay)
but the deduct $6 for the first 3 trips in a month ($18). disabled vets are very happy to get the travel pay.
while talking to 2 of the vets, one of them lives about 16 miles from the VA. he is a 100% disabled vet, shot 2 times in vietnam. he has to get his brother to drive him to the VA and pays him to do it. when he went to the to get his travel pay he got $6.63 from which they deducted $6.00 from it. the other one (also a disabled combat vietnam vet.) got $13 and some change and they deducted $6 from it.
this has just come up in the last 2 years to do it this way. i guess this is one of the ways for the govt. to pay for the new BO health care plan.

one other thing came up and it has to do with the new clinics they are setting up. we were told we could stay with our Dr. at the va hospital that we have had for years and didn't have to change to the clinic if we didn't want to. others like me chose to stay with our DR's. it seems that they have not gotten as many to move to the clinics as they thought they would. some of us get some test that are not given at the clinics, so it would mean 2 different trips to the VA, one to the hospital and one to the clinic. well today they told us that the VA was only going to pay to the closest place, but if we still wanted to go to the hospital they would not pay the difference. i can afford it so it does not make much difference to me, but it will to some of the vets. i guess this is another way to pay for the new BO health care plan.

this is not political, but it is the results of a govt. that has failed it's veterans. they find ways to send politicians around the world, including our leaders at a great expense, but have a hard time getting a veteran to and from a VA facility. sorry that to me sucks, big time.

sorry for my rant again, but it has been a very long day today and i am tired. when you have been among real american hero's it is hard to not feel sad for them and want to help them.

ron

[Perro Del Diablo]

That is one of the things i've always disagreed with in this country

If you can serve your country, and earn the right to use the VA, then the taxpayers should not complain about footing the bill for travel pay to the hospital for the vets.

There is a TON of other assinine CRAP they give tax dollars for
maybe they can quit giving out the grants to find out why guys dont like wearing condoms, and to give some jerkhole money for caulking his windows instead.
At least the vets EARNED the tax payers money honestly.


wow - the boss has turned on the bad word censor and i have once again been shut down :(

[RandyCOG3]

I had to make a trip a couple hours down south of here today, as I sometimes do, and there isn't SQUAT to listen to on the radio, so, I sometimes tune in to NPR down there (and that IS the ONLY reason... and then, ONLY if it's entertaining, or informative, or p1sses me off with their lib crap).

TODAY they had a lady on that had lost both of her legs to an RPG, and, if I understood her correctly, had been both a PATIENT and ADMIN of the VA, and that after getting transferred from DoD.

She sure talked a good game, TODAY. She said "the tie goes to the runner" <quote/unquote>, meaning, as translated by the narrator, that the VA should be spending time treating patients instead of making "clerks" prove that they were, in fact, in combat, at X, on Y date, under Z circumstances.

Edited to add that a lot of "clerks" were sending projectiles downrange in various conflicts. And, some female persons also were "clerks".
And also got killed or wounder or lost along the way..and maybe taking fire and/or incoming rounds. Et Cetera.

She also said that there had, historically, been a lot of inability of the DoD computers to talk to the VA computers.

WWI guys are all gone, Korea guys are almost all gone, Viet Nam guys, according to this lady, can get immediate help for PTSD, and Iraq, and Afghanistan, withOUT having to prove anything. I'm guessing... probably NOT.

TO REITERATE: What this lady and the host said, TODAY, on NPR, (That is National Public Radio) The VA, is, "Now", supposed to be the Vet's advocate, instead of (historically, up until lately, at least), their ENEMY.

As I've said before, I was never in the military. My opinion is just my own.
But, that doesn't mean I don't get my hackles up about BS.

AFAIK, "we" "only" pay around 2% of the "Public Radio" Budget..... but it's 99% liberal bullshit, mostly from people that would tax us 100% of their budget, so that they could re-enact the "Fairness Doctrine" to destroy commercially viable AM (and, some FM) talk radio. They would klll commercially viable radio, and then use their propaganda to tax US to pay for it all. I'm sure that I've mentioned before... that I used to, as a teen, listen to Radio Moscow's propaganda, and they were THE BEST, and, even as a teen, I didn't buy into commie shortwave BS.

Cap'n Ron: Far be it from me to suggest to YOU what to do. However, I WOULD get a copy of that stuff from NPR......from TODAY. We paid for it. It should be public data.

Sorry that you and your friends keep getting lied to. And I'm sorry some witch, who really did lose her legs to an RPG wants me to think that you and your friends are getting fair treatment. B.O. didn't start it, I know... doesn't matter. His turn to fix it.

I'll apologize IF the Vets really ARE getting decent, reasonable, timely treatment under the new ADMIN. Somebody needs to, to be fair, to post it here, or post links to it, if that's the case.

Randy

[RandyCOG3]

today i went to the VA hospital ...

this is not political,

ron

To be more precise for the other readers, it wasn't political, for YOU.


To "us", you're a Hero. TO "them".... you're a hideous tax burden.


Grrrr...

I'm gonna say it's something bigger than 99%, RIGHT NOW. Maybe not to the doc's you have to deal with.

I'd appreciate your opinion about what I heard, on NPR, today. Public or via PM.

Best regards for you and your family, for the New Year, whether or not you reply, ever, or timely, or later.

Thanks for your service to Our Country, Cap'n

RV



I'd better stop now.

Grrr...


RandyCOG3

[RicePaddyDaddy]

I have been in the VA Healthcare system for many years.With just a couple exceptions the care has been very good but everything moves at a snail's pace and you have to adjust to that.The Vet Outpatient and hospitals I have been into are well kept and very clean.When it comes to paperwork/claims it is a complete cluster....mess.Everywhere I go they are packed with old farts like me,I often wonder what will happen when the troops finally come home and start coming to these already over crowded facilities.As I understand it now transplants are no longer available to vets if you're over 60,maybe it's a sign of things to come.......still providing vet care but not as much,cutting corners in other words.