StanMac Loc: Tennessee

👍👍👍👍👍

Stan

Redleg john

The VA is too large to provide effective care to our veterans. "Leadership" has no real authority to make meaningful changes and the professional bureaucrats are interested only in the status quo and bonuses for falsified achievement.
Nothing will change until Congress addresses the problem. They helped create this bureaucracy and have no stomach to reform it. Their solution over the past several years is to just throw more money at it. It's a national disgrace to spend this amount of money and our veterans receive substandard care. This is the same government that gave us Obama care, found it would not work, and now refuse to fix it!

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I have been going to the VA in Long Beach California since I got out in 1975. Back then the hospital was a nightmare. It's so huge and hard to find anything that I stopped going after being treated for a few things. In 2010 I started going back because I didn't have private insurance any longer. I broke both of my legs in an accident and the VA in LB treated me after a private hospital surgically set the bones in my legs. I've been very impressed with the VA in LB since then. Mostly I've been using them as an outpatient for various thing such as a sinus problem, colonoscopy, bunion etc. Each time my primary care doctor and I discussed a problem I was sent to a specialist within a couple of weeks and then the care began. I was hospitalized once as an inpatient and that was miserable. I was in a 8 man room that was full. The beds they have are constantly moving, supposedly to keep bed sores from forming. I wanted them to unplug the bed and they said they couldn't. (or wouldn't) I hated the bed and the 8 man room was full of moaning men with all kinds of problems that kept me up all night. I never want to be admitted ever again.

I am going to move to Arizona and dread the poor reviews that their VA hospital is getting. I'm likely to die if I go there but I can't stand living amongst all the government sucking liberal loving welfare recipients here in CA. I think the liberals want CA to secede from the union and become its own country and I want no part of that.

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

The VA has turned this 87 year old over to Medicare. (22 years service)

fhadfield

With you dude. The hospital in Palo Alto is the best.

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

The VA has turned this 87 year old vet to Medicare (22 years service) Running into all kinds of problems

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

The use of non-va medical is the Veterans Choice program and it is based on distance from a facility - you must be at least 40 miles away - as the crow flies - to quality. I currently am enrolled in the Choice program and only have to travel 20m vs 100m. I use it for disability issues - is working great. The Dr's tell me it takes a couple of months to get paid and some don't want to deal with the delays and paperwork.
IMO, there are a couple of problems with the current VA system - First, it is a bureaucratic nightmare - but that is expected in any large govt organization that has to justify its existence to get moneys - second - [controversial and I will not respond] - stop treating non-military related medical issues... this is a HUGE expense that the tax payer should not be paying out and it clogs the system... just because you have a military disability for, as an example, hearing, - doesn't mean that you should get joint replacements, open heart surgery, or other old age issues taken care by the veterans hospitals... that is what medical insurance / medicade / medicare is for - or if you're retired - tricare / tricare4life - stay out of the VA hospitals and let them take care of the wounded vets that need help... my 2cents worth...

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

There was a Whistle Blower that revealed the problems at the VA Hospital in Arizona. They investigated and discovered much of what he said was true. He said he was suppose to get Whistle Blower Protection. He did not get it, and told the News Media that he was being harassed by the supervisors at the hospital. And that complaints to the Hospital Administrator, who was a woman at that time, fell on deaf ears. Yes, thousands a month are leaving California because of Governor Brown's constant tax increases. The perfect song to describe him, is a song by the Beatles, titled "The Tax Man."

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Do you use the VA system and if not who cares what you think?

I use the VA and it is great and much better than most civilian hospitals. One reason is computerized record system which is universal.

RainierView Loc: Eatonville, WA

I've been going to the American Lake VA hospital in Tacoma Washington for over 15 years. Started after I had passed out and was taken by ambulance to a hospital ER in Oregon while visiting there. After all day in ER and many tests, not even one day in hospital room, I received a bill over $16,000. I had no insurance, and needed follow up.

I had registered with the VA decades before but couldn't receive care because of a huge waiting list (that was before Bush changed things). A friend of mine told me to go back to the VA. I did and got a new VA card and saw a doctor that day. I also submitted the hospital bill to the VA. To my shock in less than a month they paid the entire bill and paid for the ambulance.

I've been going to the VA exclusively ever since and have had excellent care. For specialists I'm sent to the Seattle VA.

Around 10 years ago I had a double hernia and was sent to the Seattle VA for micro surgery. Left the hospital same day with less than a 2" incision, and I was walking normal in a week.

Four years ago I developed a retinal vien occolusion in my right eye and had to see a retinal specialist. I was sent to the Seattle VA. Ever since I've been going in for an injection in that eye every other month or so to save vision in that eye. Once again the Seattle VA is giving me excellent treatments by doctors, nurses and staff that care. The retinal doctors are from Harborview Medical Center Seattle that rotate to the VA. They are the best of the best. They have and are saving my vision.

Needless to say, I have no complaints about the care the VA is giving me. I wish it was that way for all vets.

Alafoto Loc: Montgomery, AL

I have had 'adequate' care from our local VA hospital in Montgomery, AL. Things still move at a snail's pace, perhaps because of overload attributable to us old guys living longer these days and a never ending supply of people wounded in the various desert wars of the past couple of decades, but the only real problem I have experienced is that the doctors here are mostly of middle-eastern descent and their English is not really great. I have had some difficulty describing symptoms to my assigned physician (Dr. Vinubhai Vashani) and understanding his instructions in response. I have noticed that since our local congresswoman made the the Montgomery VA a primary concern of hers, they have at least, pretended to be interested in what the patient has to say and are much less rude.

It's a free service, being provided mostly by people who seem to wish they could get the same pay and benefits elsewhere and provided to a lot of people who wish they had access to personalized medical care elsewhere. Although the 'free' part has gone by the wayside. Since I became eligible for Medicare I am being charged co-pays for drugs prescribed in response to combat wounds that were never assessed before. It's a service that's still worth what I pay, although I wouldn't have willingly paid the price that entitles me to that service. I really don't believe we were ever in danger of being invaded by the North Vietnamese.

Diocletian

Huh. CA has the best economy (6th largest in the world, isn't it?) and highest standard of living. No connection?

juanbalv Loc: Los Angeles / Hawthorne

It is not an automatic thing. There are issues and tests that have to be met. Chief among these, is the distance that a vet has to travel in order to be seen. I am not sure but I think that it must be over 45 miles as long as the facility does not provide any type of transportation. There are other qualifiers. You can find those at www.VA.Gov. Many people are against these types of services being privatized. For myself, I am very satisfied with the medical help I receive in Los Angeles, CA. I say medical help, because the support staff are not necessarily the best. In fact, in many instances, here in Los Angeles, these folks would not last a week working in a private practice, or even an HMO. For a while, things started to straighten up as fears of being fired motivated some to provide better service.
Alas, things have gone back to what it was before pretty much. But the fault resides on our shoulders, the vets, for allowing it. You need to complain in writing to do something about it.
I have attached a copy of the card sent during 2015 to all plan members. I hope this helps.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Sorry but he is a forum member and presumably a tax payer so he does get to speak out with his opinion. You may not like what he says just as you don't like what I say but we all have a right to speak our piece. It is not dependent on your approval. I don't ever see you whining and complaining about other members from Australia or England piping in with their opinions.

Sorry, sucks to be you in this case.

Dennis