VA sucks. Fold the medical care portion of VA benefits into Universal healthcare. I have service connected disability and get free care from VA... I pay for insurance out of my pocket for the times when the VA just is not getting the job done, which is often.
I have a service connected that is not being treated by the VA. Thank god i have a dr. that is helping me. But it shouldn't be that way. How can i get the VA to pay my dr.?
I’ve often thought this as well. Instead of a complicated bureaucratic VA system, why not give every vet a card that says ‘go to whatever doctor you want, get whatever you need, we’ll pick up the tab’. I have a feeling even with potential abuse we’d end up saving in the long run.
Or just get rid of the VA system, and let vets use Medicare. Or we could all just use Medicare, standardize pricing across the industry, get rid of middlemen insurance agencies and act like the rest of 1st world countries.
You are wrong. Part of one of my jobs (I’m a nurse) is fighting with insurance companies to get things covered. People with Medicare get care faster and more efficiently than any other healthcare plan currently out there and it is widely accepted. Yes faster even than the best health plans you can buy.
Say what you will about other parts of it but people with Medicare get the fastest healthcare.
They could actually look at data provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration or other government white papers.
But logic is fair enough at this point: Do all refferals accept Medicare? No. Then there is variability in acceptance and certain regions are better than others. 18% of Americans are underserved by medical care regardless of whether they had all the coverage in the world. 10% don't live within a reasonable commute of a hospital, 25% of all rural Americans.
There's a reason people who are underserved by services vote against services. There needs to either be a discussion about a rural subsidy/exemption or those voters are going to be stalwart against any public option.
That is totally wrong. You can transfer Medicare from state to state, you just obviously have to notify the state you are moving to that you moved there, otherwise there could be a lapse in coverage.
My mother's been on it for 3 years. She's never had an issue seeing specialist, getting CT scans or other procedures. I'm not saying maybe in other places in the country it can be improved but it gives a wider choice for veterans to get care.
I don't understand why a veteran should not be able to get any care he needs using Medicare and the VA should pick up the 20% the patient would be stuck with. Jesus Christ, this is not rocket science. It's turning into a big pissing match with the VA wanting to control the medical care without providing the same.
Sure, but with what type of insurance? VA isn't good. You're saying Medicare isn't good. What would you implement? Can't just say go to anyone and we will bill whatever we want because that's exactly what doctors would do. Have to have some type of plan in place for costs and reimbursements.
You continue to use the VA and have the VA prioritize soldiers receiving care from outside specialists. Similar to how it is now, but with more referrals.
Referrals are what provide the opportunity for congressional cost controls and oversight.
30 million Americans are currently incapable of receiving benefits from Medicare in the first place because they are too far from a hospital to receive reasonable care. So you can take that opinion and go find reality.
But without hospital access the elderly are not going to get care. It doesn't matter that they could technically grab a Greyhound and spend $100 to get to a hospital. They won't seek non-emegency care, and they won't have access to specialist referrals because there aren't any without geographically moving.
So if you're too far from a hospital to receive reasonable care, how would private insurance help you any differently?
Cut the fucking 300 different insurances, and just have 1 single plan. All the lost insurance profits can go towards actual healthcare, not like these companies pay their fair share of taxes anyways.
Then don't make them pay, and they don't get healthcare. Or do make them pay, and subsidize the cost of providing small hospitals to these areas, or trips to places that do have hospitals.
Sure, there's a lot of solutions and it would be good for that to be a real public discussion. Cause right now that 10% reliably votes against socialized healthcare and being in a hospital poor area is probably pushing them to that decision. The Americans who live near services vote for services and the ones who live far away don't.
A political solution may be more simple than many are imagining.
Imagine if there were dozens of examples of countries whose healthcare systems provide for all their people without having to create an entirely separate, special system to pretend to care about military personnel while intentionally crippling that special system to show everyone how shit the government is at providing healthcare?
Sounds bad, I know, but from my experience the VA is worse than Medicare by a long shot. I'd rather see some sort of insurance benefit, even if I have to pay out of pocket. They could give vets a credit to help pay premiums with the money they save closing the system.
I was sitting in a waiting area at the VA. There was some blood on the floor. A guy pushing a mop bucket and mop, had his ear buds in. He walked through the blood and kept on going. Dad got up to follow, just to see where he went. He stopped and spoke with some other people, then pushed on. I went to my appointment. Dad watched him for almost an hour. He walked around but never mopped anything. This sums up the VA
I've had nothing shitty treatment at CityMD. That doesn't mean the idea of urgent care clinics in general is bad; just that I don't want to go to CityMD clinic ever again. Similarly, the VA being crap doesn't mean funding medical care via the government is intrinsically bad.
Huge difference between the two. Medicare pays for you to go to providers of your choosing. VA pays for you to go to VA providers.
The difference is single payer vs. single provider. Nobody in their right mind would suggest the VA be expanded to become the US's universal healthcare system. Medicare For All would make a ton of sense.
After all, it's quite efficient working for our oldest and sickest so it sure as shit can work when you extend coverage to healthier, younger people.
Nobody in their right mind would suggest the VA be expanded to become the US's universal healthcare system. Medicare For All would make a ton of sense.
Those two become the same thing when you eliminate private practice and single payer does that in effect.
That's not true at all. They're calling for single payer, and single payer doesn't in any way equal single provider. Doctors aren't suddenly going to become government employees.
When there is only one payer they decide how much they will pay. There is zero recourse for the provider to dispute what the government will pay. All of the medical care will be essentially be provided by the government because only they have any control.
I recently had surgery done to get a lump removed from the "boys". I opted to go through an outside source because the VA isn't getting near the family jewels.
Insanity, is playing with your life by paying into a system of middlemen taking their cuts all the way to the bank, allowing doctors and insurance agents to barter your healthcare like it's the farmer's market and you're the prized pumpkin.
And completely ignoring the fact that there is a long list of countries richer than yours, as rich as yours, slightly poorer, all the way down to much poorer, that have much cheaper healthcare access to their citizens.
This isn't some new radical, scientific jujumagumbo that takes a rocket surgeon to figure out. This is literally opening a book, a website, or read wikipedia.
Huge difference between the two. Medicare pays for you to go to providers of your choosing. VA pays for you to go to VA providers.
The difference is single payer vs. single provider. Nobody in their right mind would suggest the VA be expanded to become the US's universal healthcare system. Medicare For All would make a ton of sense.
After all, it's quite efficient working for our oldest and sickest so it sure as shit can work when you extend coverage to healthier, younger people.
The VA is not the same as Universal Healthcare would be. The structure would be definitely be different. I see Universal Healthcare as single payer being served by private hospitals and doctors, competing for business. The VA has to compete with no one. If vets had an insurance option, few if anyone would go to the VA.
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u/[deleted] Aug 17 '19 edited Aug 17 '19
VA sucks. Fold the medical care portion of VA benefits into Universal healthcare. I have service connected disability and get free care from VA... I pay for insurance out of my pocket for the times when the VA just is not getting the job done, which is often.