I know first hand how the appointments have changed for all of us vets. Last month, when I asked to see an orthopedic surgeon, I was set up with six appointments at an outside medical facility and that has never happened ever before. Things seem to be turning around at the VA health facilities. I received this first appointment less than two weeks after I asked for one. It seems for the time being, I can delay any operation, if the injections I will be given are proven to be helpful. The injections helped with my right knee being painless for years.Just saying there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

So, Common_sense_matters, let us use some of that commonsense. First Woodguru did not give a reference (as usual) but he did mention obama, mccain, and President Trump. If he had been referencing the token crumb tossed to the veteran by obama (and by the way mccain had nothing to do with), with a little research he would have found that obama's crumb expired.... as you would have known if you had taken the time to research or even read the bill you linked. This makes the only relevant policy/law change the one recently signed by President Trump. A broad-based entitlement for all veterans and according to the VA it is now a benefit that is permanent.... not a token short-lived bread crumb. In my response to woodguru, I did give credit to obama for all his efforts in relation to our veterans.

Time to live up to your moniker.

Title III: Health Care Staffing, Recruitment, and Training Matters - (Sec. 301) Requires the Inspector General of the VA to determine, annually, the five health care occupations for which there are the largest staffing shortages throughout the VA. Authorizes the Secretary to recruit and directly appoint qualified health care providers to serve in such occupations for the VA.

Directs the Secretary to establish graduate medical residency programs, or ensure that existing graduate medical residency programs have a sufficient number of residency positions, at any VA medical facility that is: (1) experiencing a physician shortage, and (2) located in a community that is designated as a health professional shortage area.

Requires the Secretary to: (1) allocate the residency positions among the occupations on the list of those experiencing the largest staffing shortages throughout the VA; and (2) give priority to residency positions and programs in primary care, mental health, and any other specialty the Secretary deems appropriate.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) increase the the number of residency positions at VA medical facilities by up to 1,500 positions over the five-year period beginning one year after this Act's enactment; and (2) give priority in increasing such positions to VA medical facilities that do not have a medical residency program and that are located in communities that have a high concentration of veterans.

Requires the Secretary to submit an annual report to Congress, until 2019, on graduate medical education residency positions at VA medical facilities.

Directs the Secretary, under the VA's Health Professionals Educational Assistance program, to give scholarship priority to applicants pursuing education or training towards a career in a health care occupation that represents one of the five largest staffing shortages in the VA.

Requires the Secretary to submit a biennial report to Congress, until 2024, assessing the staffing of each VA medical facility.

(Sec. 302) Extends through 2019 (under current law, 2014) the VA's health professionals educational assistance program.

Raises, from $60,000 to $120,000, the per-individual limit on education debt reduction payments made by the VA to health personnel who: (1) are difficult to recruit or retain, and (2) provide the VA with direct-patient care services or services incident thereto. Raises the per year limit on such payments from $12,000 to $24,000.

(Sec. 303) Directs the Secretary to establish a role-specific clinic management training program to provide in-person, standardized education on health care practice management and scheduling to all appropriate employees, as determined by the Secretary, at VA medical facilities. Terminates the program after two years. Requires the Secretary, thereafter, to provide health care management training materials to all managers of, and health care providers at, VA medical facilities and such other VA employees the Secretary considers appropriate upon the commencement of their employment. Requires the Secretary to regularly update the training materials.

Trump Signs $55 Billion Bill to Replace VA Choice Program
At a Senate news conference last month, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and a key sponsor of the bill, and Sen. Jon Tester, the ranking member of the committee, put the total costs at $55 billion, although other estimates have it at $52 billion.
Isakson acknowledged that the bill isn't paid for but said he is working with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to add funding for the bill that would likely balloon the deficit. The White House has argued for funding the bill by cutting other programs.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/06/06/trump-signs-55-billion-bill-replace-va-choice-program.html

It amazed and depresses me at what lengths some of you will go in keeping any credit from being given to President Obama.. this was wide spread news and every one should of known about it..

Obama had to work hard to get this done.. trump on the other hand only extended what was done by President Obama, and his own party gave the go ahead for this act after fight tooth and nail to stop president Obama from doing the fix first in 2014..


http://fortune.com/2018/10/26/donald-trump-rallies-obama-va-veterans-healthcare-2014/

The Greatest Idea I Think I’ve Ever Had.' Trump Repeatedly Boasts About a Vets Healthcare Law at Rallies. Obama Passed It in 2014

Ahead of the 2018 midterm e******ns, President Donald Trump has boasted about a veterans healthcare law several times at his political rallies, at one time even calling it “the greatest idea I think I’ve ever had.”

The problem with Trump’s claim is that President Barack Obama passed the law in 2014.

Called the Veterans Choice Program, the bipartisan measure was signed into law by President Obama on August 7, 2014. The groundbreaking legislation was well-documented by the news media, of course, in no small part because the $16.3 billion bill was specifically designed to help overhaul the Department of Veterans Affairs. Throughout 2014 and well before that year, the VA was plagued with criticisms about everything from long wait times for basic health care and services to the manipulation of records.

It’s true that since taking office, Trump has continued the program that Obama initiated. President Trump also expanded the Veterans Choice Program by signing the bipartisan VA MISSION Act, which funded Veterans Choice for another year until it can be consolidated with existing care systems to create one cohesive program.

But Trump’s claims at his rallies, ranging from boasts that the Veterans Choice Program was his idea to claiming that passing the legislation was something no other president was able to do, are incorrect.

As much evidence as we have seen regarding the extent to which they will deny any credit to Obama for ANYTHING good, can we really feign surprise? Perhaps I am too jaded, have seen the garbage from these Trump supporters for far too long, I am never surprised by their ignorance to anything good concerning ANY Democrat and their ignorance of ANYTHING bad regarding Trump, or ANY republican for that matter that other Trump supporters aren't calling a "rino".




Edit: For the record, Obama's was H.R. 3230, Trump's was H.R. 5674.