Pipe dream? Obamacare

[isobars]

This WSJ article reinforces what I've heard and experienced of VA hospitals and medical care first hand for over 40 years now. It (government-run, single payer socialized medicine) is coming your way via the ACA as fast as the Democrat Party can ram it down our throats, according to their leaders' public vows and to Obama himself caught on tape.

http://tinyurl.com/lelfech

Doctors' War Stories From VA Hospitals

Hal Scherz
May 27, 2014
High (er. low) lights:

With the recent revelations about the disgraceful treatment of patients by the Veterans Affairs hospitals, the public is discovering what the majority of doctors in this country have long known: The VA health-care system is a disaster.

The federal government runs two giant health-care programs—Medicare and the VA system. Medicare is provided by private physicians and other providers. Its finances are a mess, but the care that seniors receive is by and large outstanding. The VA health-care system is run by a centrally controlled federal bureaucracy. Ultimately, that is the source of the poor care veterans receive.

U.S. doctors are well aware of the problems with VA hospitals because many of us trained at them. [We] have borne witness to the abuses and mismanagement, and when [we] attempt to fight against the entrenched bureaucracy on behalf of their patients, [we] meet fierce resistance.

understaffed and overscheduled ... months in advance, and longer for surgery ... bankers' hours ... Administrators limited operating time so that work stopped by 3 p.m. ... rationing ... physician problem-solving initiative stifled ... thousands of other stories just like these ... best thing that a patient in the VA system could hope for was that the services he needed were unavailable and he got a voucher to "go downtown" ...

Proponents of the Affordable Care Act have long used the VA to showcase the benefits of federally planned and run health care. Doctors know otherwise ... The systemic problems with the VA bureaucracy are a harbinger of things to come.

The best solution for veterans would be to wind down the VA hospitals.

Dr. Scherz is a pediatric urological surgeon at Georgia Urology and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and serves on the faculty of Emory University Medical School

[mrgybe]

Wait for it.............the WSJ is owned by Murdoch and is not credible!

It is becoming increasingly clear that President Obama's legacy will be to finally convince a majority of the people in this country that government is not competent to administer large scale programs such as these. Obamacare, VA, IRS, NSA, Justice Department, GSA.........all out of control. We owe the President our gratitude for bringing the uninformed on board.

[mac]

So let me see if I get this right. Isobars posts an article that there are problems with the VA. No surprise to anyone reading the news. Mrgybe abandons logic and reasoning, and leaps to the conclusion that he is programmed to always reach--government can't do anything, particularly in health care. And, of course, it is Obama's fault.

So, reasoning that it takes money to provide health care, let's answer the question of whether or not Obama has increased funding for the VA. Here are the inconvenient facts:

2009:$97.7 billion;

2010:$127.2 billion;

2011: $125.5 billion;

2012: $126.8 billion;

2013: $139.1 billion;

2014: $153.8 billion;

2015: $163.9 billion.

Is it enough? I don't know. The little adventures flexing our manhood in Afghanistan and Iraq have resulted in about 1 million injured veterans. http://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccaruiz/2013/11/04/report-a-million-veterans-injured-in-iraq-afghanistan-wars/ Accounts of the costs of the war, since the very beginning, have indicated that treating veterans will increase for 30 years. I would ask the question, did the Bush Administration provide for an accounting of these costs? I'm pretty sure that you know the answer already.

This is, in part, a question of scale. Maybe Shinseki should go, maybe the problems are present throughout the organization. It is pretty clear to me that, without advanced planning to anticipate actually running a war and the aftermath, a generic problem throughout the Iraq misadventure, it is impossible to quickly scale up the VA facilities to meet the needs. Maybe what is necessary is a partnership between the private and public health care sectors. You mean, kinda like the ACA?

When you only look at the convenient facts, you only get the solutions that don't work.

[boggsman1]

Mr G...that may be your perspective of his legacy.. Mine is one of a president , holding office during one of the biggest , most rip roaring increases in asset values in the history of the country. Wow....God Bless Dr. Dre...only in America.

[isobars]

[boggsman1]

I dont know its its funny or pathetic to watch older retired types, whining and bitching about Obama, while at the same time there's never been a better time to be a creative entepeneur in this country...I dont think Jimmy Iovine is sitting home watching Fox News, waiting for the mid-terms..

[windoggi]

I love Finnish poetry.

http://www.luminarium.org/suomenrunous/index2.html

[mrgybe]

[boggsman1]

Mr G... I challenge you to take a trip out to San Francisco this Summer. It is raging here.. VC's are funding at record levels... I will take you on a tour of startups, you are DEAD WRONG again...shocking.
And furthermore....dont bother linking another article about increased regulation. Its having ZERO impact out here.

[mrgybe]

And I challenge you to take your blinkers off and look outside your little corner of the country. Business formation in 2009, 2010, and 2011 was lower than at any time in the last 35 years. 4Q GDP, negative 1%. Yet you still scream how wonderful everything is. You and this Administration seem to have much in common in your narrow view of the world.