snowbear37 Loc: MA.

I'm not a Trump fan, but...



Veterans Administration Reforms That Will Make America Great Again

The Goals Of Donald J. Trump’s Veterans Plan

The current state of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is absolutely unacceptable. Over 300,000 veterans died waiting for care. Corruption and incompetence were excused. Politicians in Washington have done too little too slowly to fix it. This situation can never happen again, and when Donald J. Trump is president, it will be fixed – fast.

The guiding principle of the Trump plan is ensuring veterans have convenient access to the best quality care. To further this principle, the Trump plan will decrease wait times, improve healthcare outcomes, and facilitate a seamless t***sition from service into civilian life.

The Trump Plan Will:
1.Ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever they need it. No more long drives. No more waiting for backlogs. No more excessive red tape. Just the care and support they earned with their service to our country.
2.Support the whole veteran, not just their physical health care, but also by addressing their invisible wounds, investing in our service members’ post-active duty success, t***sforming the VA to meet the needs of 21st century service members, and better meeting the needs of our female veterans.
3.Make the VA great again by firing the corrupt and incompetent VA executives who let our veterans down, by modernizing the VA, and by empowering the doctors and nurses to ensure our veterans receive the best care available in a timely manner.



The Trump Plan Gives Veterans The Freedom To Choose And Forces The VA To Compete For Their Dollars

Politicians in Washington have tried to fix the VA by holding hearings and blindly throwing money at the problem. None of it has worked. In fact, wait times were 50% higher this summer than they were a year ago. That’s because the VA lacks the right leadership and management. It’s time we stop trusting Washington politicians to fix the problems and empower our veterans to v**e with their feet.

Under a Trump Administration, all veterans eligible for VA health care can bring their veteran’s ID card to any doctor or care facility that accepts Medicare to get the care they need immediately. Our veterans have earned the freedom to choose better or more convenient care from the doctor and facility of their choice. The power to choose will stop the wait time backlogs and force the VA to improve and compete if the department wants to keep receiving veterans’ healthcare dollars. The VA will become more responsive to veterans, develop more efficient systems, and improve the quality of care because it will have no other choice.

The Trump Plan Treats The Whole Veteran

We must care for the whole veteran, not just their physical health. We must recognize that today’s veterans have very different needs than those of the Greatest Generation.

The Trump Plan Will:
1.Increase funding for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury and suicide prevention services to address our veterans’ invisible wounds. Service members are five times more likely to develop depression than civilians. They are almost fifteen times more likely to develop PTSD than civilians. This funding will help provide more and better counseling and care. More funding will also support research on best practices and state of the art treatments to keep our veterans alive, healthy and whole. With these steps, the Trump plan will help the veteran community put the unnecessary stigma surrounding mental health behind them and instead encourage acceptance and treatment in our greater society.
2.Increase funding for job training and placement services (including incentives for companies hiring veterans), educational support and business loans. All Americans agree that we must do everything we can to help put our service men and women on a path to success as they leave active duty by collaborating with the many successful non-profit organizations that are already helping. Service members have learned valuable sk**ls in the military but many need help understanding how to apply those sk**ls in civilian life. Others know how to apply those sk**ls but need help connecting with good jobs to support their families. Still others have an entrepreneurial spirit and are ready to start creating jobs and growing the economy. The Trump plan will strengthen existing programs or replace them with more effective ones to address these needs and to get our veterans working.
3.T***sform the VA to meet the needs of 21st century service members. Today’s veterans have very different needs than those of the generations that came before them. The VA must adapt to meet the needs of this generation of younger, more diverse veterans. The Trump plan will expand VA services for female veterans and ensure the VA is providing the right support for this new generation of veterans.
4.Better support our women veterans. The fact that many VA hospitals don’t permanently staff OBGYN doctors shows an utter lack of respect for the growing number female veterans. Under the Trump plan, every VA hospital in the country will be fully equipped with OBGYN and other women’s health services. In addition, women veterans can always choose a different OBGYN in their community using their veteran’s ID card.


The Trump Plan Will Make The VA Great Again

The VA health care program is a disaster. Some candidates want to get rid of it, but our veterans need the VA to be there for them and their families. That’s why the Trump plan will:
1.Fire the corrupt and incompetent VA executives that let our veterans down. Under a Trump Administration, there will be no job security for VA executives that enabled or overlooked corruption and incompetence. They’re fired. New leadership will focus the VA staff on delivering timely, top quality care and other services to our nation’s veterans. Under a Trump Administration, exposing and addressing the VA’s inefficiencies and shortcomings will be rewarded, not punished.
2.End waste, fraud and abuse at the VA. The Trump plan will ensure the VA is spending its dollars wisely to provide the greatest impact for veterans and hold administrators accountable for irresponsible spending and abuse. The days of $6.3 million for statues and fountains at VA facilities and $300,000 for a manager to move 140 miles are over. The Trump plan will clean up the VA’s finances so the current VA budget provides more and better care than it does now.
3.Modernize the VA. A VA with 20th century technology cannot serve 21st century service members and their needs. The VA has been promising to modernize for years without real results. The Trump plan will make it happen by accelerating and expanding investments in state of the art technology to deliver best-in-class care quickly and effectively. All veterans should be able to conveniently schedule appointments, communicate with their doctors, and view accurate wait times with the push of a button.
4.Empower the caregivers to ensure our veterans receive quality care quickly. Caregivers should be able to easily streamline treatment plans across departments and utilize telehealth tools to better serve their patients. As we have seen from the private sector, the potential for new, innovative technology is endless. Abandoning the wasteful and archaic mindset of the public sector will give way to tremendously effective veteran healthcare.
5.Hire more veterans to care for veterans. The more veterans we have working at the VA, the better the VA will be. They understand the unique challenges facing their community. To increase the number of veterans hired by the VA, this plan will add an additional 5 points to the qualifying scores of veterans applying for VA jobs.
6.Embed satellite VA clinics in rural and other underserved areas. The Trump Administration will embed satellite VA clinics within hospitals and other care facilities in rural and other underserved areas. This step will ensure veterans have easy access to care and local hospitals and care facilities can handle the influx of patients without backlogs while tapping the specialized knowledge of VA health specialists.

wuzblynd Loc: thomson georgia

They deserve the best of care. My father was a vet, after 20 years of service, the promised health care was a joke. He spent his own money to get good care. Our government needs to be held accountable.

robmull Loc: florida

As a disabled vet getting treatment at the WPB VA, I noticed in 2009 that the attitude of the doctors and staff went from 100%, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE," to about 82-90%. Then there were those new "HOPE AND CHANGE," O-Buts [about 10-18%] that were seething with anger, REALLY didn't like America, and "WE," as military vets, were the reason America is America. The H**E was palpable, and there was even a small liberal group at the hospital I heard whispering about their new club, "rednecks for BHO." I caught them [and they knew it], and they immediately went into TOTAL avoidance and denial mode. After about 15 minutes of complete helplessness in my wheel chair, I explained to one of the "redneck" nurses that I HAD to get back to my room. It was like they hadn't even noticed me until then. Strange this new breed!!!

snowbear37 Loc: MA.

Ever since 'Nam', Libs have publically vilified Vets. They have no idea the cost of their "right to protest", nor do they care. You know what it's worth and I know what it's worth and we can't let them feel complacent with their s**tty attitudes! Please be aware that though there are people like that, there are plenty of people that feel as we do.

robmull Loc: florida

I finally came to the conclusion, snowbear, that the only reason liberal progressive "demonrat," "Alinskyites," don't want to go to war is because "WE" may k**l THEIR comrades. As soon as "WE" started winning the war in Vietnam, the "war protesters" ["red-diaper" SDS & Weather Underground], with the help of the liberal progressive "state-run" media, shut US down; with mass casualties in the "K*****g Fields" to thousands of innocent South Vietnamese who backed our free-market Western civilization. The liberal progressive "war protesters" didn't give a crap about THAT!!! I was in the Navy in the Vietnam years, but broke my neck before I shipped out.

For more than a hundred years the liberal progressive "Marx/Alinsky" radicals have been attempting to "bring America to her knees," and much the same is happening in the ME now as happened in "Nam;" only now it's with the "DEATH TO AMERICA," jihad crew. Parade after parade of ISIS {ISIL} jihad warriors are flaunting their savagery and we seem to be bombing an occasional empty building or an empty lone Ford pickup truck in the middle of a huge vacant field. Apparently there a hundreds of missions sent-out in the ME, but most are aborted. Why do you suppose THAT is happening???

ghostgotcha Loc: The Florida swamps

I have seen both sides of that coin. I will testify that the VA Hospital in Asheville NC represents the best possible care. On the other hand... I have had occasion to stop into other clinics and or hospitals around the country and I can report there is quite a variance in the care offered and the attitude of the staff.

ONE OF THE WORSE I have witnessed is a brand new, multi-story multi-million dollar clinic in Fort Myers Florida.

The common denominator is is not in the care professionals but rather the counter and support staff which most all exhibit a Yankee accent and a desire to dislike their job and their country.

robmull Loc: florida

AMEN, ghostgotcha, the VA and staff in the WPB VA is A-OK. A few "Alinskyites" have set-up office in the ER, and food service, but the doctors and nurses are the best of the best!!!

Don G. Dinsdale Loc: El Cajon, CA (San Diego County)

I'm one of the lucky ones (so far!), I've been using VA exclusivity for 8 years, and have had excellent service and care... However after Obama became president I have had to pay a small fee for med's, and office visits... They paid 100% for my heart operations (5 bypass's!)... If Trump or Carson Can help clean up the wast ($$$) that would be great... Don D.


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snowbear37 Loc: MA.

We can deal with the ME jihad crowd. It's the "American" jihad crowd that pisses me off!

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

I would only add that it is who is running the VA, overhead and administrative costs a major factor because it is so poorly run and has been for many years..Our Vets wait months if not years to get approved for treatment and then the same amount of time to be seen....

President Obama and the Veteran's Administration bureaucracy are already sabotaging the Veteran's Administration reform law passed in August. The ink is barely dry on the 8.6 million "Choice Cards" that supposedly allow vets to see a doctor outside the delay-plagued system.

Obama's budget tries to snatch the 10 billion allocated for the Choice program and allow it to be spent, however top VA administrators want. It's a sickening betrayal.
Even worse, VA secretary Robert McDonald is telling federal lawmakers that this underhanded move will better serve "VA system priorities". That's the problem. He's more interested in protecting "the system" than vets. It's all about bureaucratic turf and union jobs.

With a straight face, McDonald says it has "nothing to do with us trying to gut the Choice Card or anything like that; it was about flexibility." Flexibility for VA bureaucrats, not for ailing vets who need it. Removing the funding will gut the program because the law says the Choice program expires whenever funding runs out.

At a Feb.2 pres briefing, VA administrators facetiously claimed sick vets don't want to see outside physicians, and that use of Choice Cards was "much lower" than they had expected. That's a whopper. When asked, they couldn't provide any specifics.

Pete Hegseth of Concerned Veterans For America, can. He reports that vets get the runaround when they call the VA for permission to use the Choice Card. "The Va is making a concerted attempt to undermine anything that looks like choice."

Vets get told they don't meet the requirements for living 40 miles or more from a VA facility, or they haven't endured an unacceptably long wait for care, or their case isn't medically necessary.

VA administrators are lying to Congress when they say vets do not want Choice. A Terrance Group poll the first week of Feb. found 88% of vets polled said it is "extremely" or "very important" to increase their health care choices.

Here's another whopper: The president's budget parrots VA"s claims that the money allocated for Choice is urgently needed to "support essential investments in VA system priorities."

House Veteran's Affairs Committee Chair Jeff Miller-R-Fla., dismisses the notion that Choice money is needed elsewhere. Pointing out that the VA has "left hundreds of millions in health care funding unspent since 2010, while thousands of vets languished on waiting lists." Not to mention that the president's new budget proposes increases VA funding by another 7.5%.

"It's not about the money" says Hegseth. The VA wants to perpetuate it's dysfunctional system "by keeping the vets from choosing to go elsewhere for care.

The shenanigans against the Choice program are one sign little progress has been made at the VA since the celebrated enactment of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014. Politicians took their bows and then the VA administrators got busy dismantling the reforms before they could succeed.

Lest we forget this bold print article posted~

IG report: 300,000 vets died while waiting for health care at VA

WASHINGTON – More than 300,000 American military veterans likely died while waiting for health care -- and nearly twice as many are still waiting -- according to a new Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general report.

<snip> plenty more to read on it..

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Ohh hell, I decided to post the whole dang thing..This garbage just makes me sick when I think how it impacts our hero's..All of you included..

Sore subject for me~~ I say let the damn politicians go fight these wars they put us in to begin with and then have to use VA for their medical needs..Boy we'd sure see change then!!!


IG report: 300,000 vets died while waiting for health care at VA

WASHINGTON – More than 300,000 American military veterans likely died while waiting for health care -- and nearly twice as many are still waiting -- according to a new Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general report.

The IG report says “serious” problems with enrollment data are making it impossible to determine exactly how many veterans are actively seeking health care from the VA, and how many were. For example, “data limitations” prevent investigators from determining how many now-deceased veterans applied for health care benefits or when.

But the findings would appear to confirm reports that first surfaced last year that many veterans died while awaiting care, as their applications got stuck in a system that the VA has struggled to overhaul. Some applications, the IG report says, go back nearly two decades.

The report addresses serious issues with the record-keeping itself.

More than half the applications listed as pending as of last year do not have application dates, and investigators "could not reliably determine how many records were associated with actual applications for enrollment" in VA health care, the report said.

The report also says VA workers incorrectly marked thousands of unprocessed health-care applications as completed and may have deleted 10,000 or more electronic "t***sactions" over the past five years.

Linda Halliday, the VA's acting inspector general, said the agency's Health Eligibility Center "has not effectively managed its business processes to ensure the consistent creation and maintenance of essential data" and recommended a multi-year plan to improve accuracy and usefulness of agency records.

The VA has said it has no way to purge the list of dead applicants, and said many of those listed in the report are likely to have used another type of insurance before they died.

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Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chairman and senior Democrat of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a joint statement that the inspector general's report pointed to "both a significant failure" by leaders at the Health Eligibility Center and "deficient oversight by the VA central office" in Washington.

The lawmakers urged VA to implement the report's recommendations quickly to improve record keeping at the VA and "ensure that this level of blatant mismanagement does not happen again."

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The Health Eligibility Center has removed a "purge-and-delete functionality" from a computer system used to track agency workloads, West said. VA will provide six months of data to demonstrate that any changed or deleted data on VA workloads has undergone appropriate management review, with approvals and audit trails visible, she said.


For Full Article:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/03/ig-report-close-to-300000-vets-died-while-waiting-for-health-care-at-va/?intcmp=hplnws

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lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Another for you to consider~~~~
Report: VA lost 10,000 applications for health care

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ system for tracking veterans’ applications for health care is so unreliable that it's impossible for VA officials to know how many former troops still want care — or even if they are still alive, according to a new report.

Investigating allegations made by a whistleblower in July that nearly a third of 847,882 veterans listed in the Veterans Health Administration enrollment system died while waiting for care, the VA Inspector General confirmed with the Social Security Administration that 307,000 former troops on the list are in fact deceased.

But investigators also found that the VA system cannot discern how many records in the system are associated with actual applications for health care, and more than half the records did not contain an associated date of application.

Investigators also found that employees incorrectly marked unprocessed applications as completed and may have deleted as many as 10,000 applications during the past five years.

The system also shows a backlog of waiting patients. According to the IG report, 11,000 applications and 28,000 related t***sactions, some as old as September 2012, have not been processed.

The IG said the database, which includes the names of all VA patients as well as applicants whose military service needed to be confirmed, is inadequate for its intended task — to track progress of applications for medical care at VA.

~ ~ ~

Many of the death notifications of veterans were from sources including the Social Security Administration, Medicare, the Defense Department and other government entities that the VA does not accept as proof of death.

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For whistleblower and VA employee Scott Davis, the new IG report vindicates his decision to come forward with the issue.

Davis, who still works at VA but says he has been assigned a lesser job in a secluded office since raising the issue with Congress and the media, said Wednesday that he plans to send VA senior leaders and Congress his own set of recommendations.

“I'm hoping they'll take a look at my recommendations," Davis said. "Ultimately, my goal was to help. I didn’t do this, as some people have accused, to make the VA look bad. I did it to fix the problem."

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Full Article:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/09/02/report-va-lost-applications-health-care/71621350/

America Only Loc: From the right hand of God

Geez. As a VET I feel for you. I've not encountered that at any of the VA hospitals I have ever been to. But I do have my own Medical coverage and seldom have to go to the VA. I am aware some of the VA Hospitals are not super good and have some i***ts working for them.

I do like Trump's view points and plans. I sincerely believe he will be elected. He is an AMERICAN that loves the USA! And I also believe he cares about us Vets.

You have my best regards.

America Only Loc: From the right hand of God

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Don G. Dinsdale Loc: El Cajon, CA (San Diego County)

Thank you and all who stand up for we veterans... Don D.
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