My status? I'm a tax payer, and a concerned citizen. I'm very glad your wife was treated well when she needed the help she deserved, not all are treated as well as they should be, I hope you don't deny the short comings of the govt. run agency. My wish is to offer a solution to the needs of injured vets that feel left out by the system.
My father was a vet from WWII and I saw the mistreatment they gave him, lucky for us/him he had insurance that helped him get the help he needed in his declining years. Watching the poor treatment he received and the disposition of many of the medical staff was appalling.
---Let's not play games, okay. Yes of course you're a taxpayer but you're not a disabled vet, so you're not in the system, and we are.
The VA has been underfunded and mis-funded during its entire existence and I am going to try to precisely illustrate HOW, because the
mis-funding might actually do more damage than the underfunding.
But first let's talk about the underfunding anyway, just to get it out of the way.
Long Beach VA used to be one of the worst in the country back in the Vietnam War era.
Ron Kovic described the conditions in his book "Born on the Fourth of July", which also became a film starring Tom Cruise.
After the film came out, people started paying more attention and the Long Beach VA, stung from its portrayal, made efforts to up its game.
Today it is considered one of the better/best VA facilities, with either 3.5 or four stars right now.
Much of the old VA that Ron Kovic was stuck in has been completely torn down.
Now let's talk about the MIS-funding...
My wife is a patient at the SCI (Spinal Cord Injury unit) which is a hospital within a hospital.
They just hired a new
SCI staff neurologist about eight months ago, and a neurologist is a pretty important position inside of an SCI unit.
Long Beach had to make do however,
WITHOUT an SCI staff neurologist for TWO YEARS, because Congress said there wasn't enough funds to HIRE one.
Guess what they DID have funds for?
A brand new outdoor walkway, a remodeled atrium, new artwork on the wall, new tile, a grand piano in the auditorium, and a completely remodeled front entrance and foyer for the main building (Bldg. 126) Total cost for all of this is estimated at or near seven million dollars.
How is this possible?
In 1994 the Gingrich Congress made several rule changes in how some things are funded, including the VA.
The
VA physical plant budget is
NON-discretionary spending, meaning if the VA spends all the money it needs for building maintenance, remodeling etc in a given year, it is guaranteed to get that same amount or even more the next year.
The
VA Health Care budget, which pays for doctor salaries, medicines, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, lab techs, nurses, orderlies, physical therapists, research, and anything else directly related to patient care, is
DISCRETIONARY SPENDING, which means that every single year, someone in Congress can, on a whim, make cuts here, make cuts there, make cuts wherever they wish at their discretion.
From where I sit, as the husband of a 100% service connected disabled Navy veteran, this looks like an INTENTIONAL effort to CRIPPLE a government program in order to create a justification for attacking it. No one in their right mind would be ordering expensive remodeling projects while they can't find the money for a staff neurologist in a spinal cord injury unit unless it was with malice aforethought.
So if you want to walk around believing that the VA is just a bunch of incompetents who don't care about their veterans, go ahead.
But YOU'RE WRONG.
The VA functions as good as it does DESPITE the best efforts of some in Congress to try to kill it.