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Phurfur

40 U.S. veterans die while on Phoenix VA hospital's cost-cutting secret wait list

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When I has stationed in Gaeta, Italy. A friend of mine from high school, who joined a year before me, was stationed on the USS LaSalle. The home port for his ship was in Virginia I think. They did a 6 month European tour making several stops at different locations. Well, one day the LaSalle makes a stop in Gaeta. Me and some other friends were at a bar in downtown Gaeta, and guess who walks in....yep, my buddy from school. What are the oddsof that?

 

A little back story. I had seen the guy since he joined, I hadn't spoke with him since he graduated. He was more of an acquaintance then a friend really. Now our high school only had about 500 people total in it. I think that's pretty low odds of happening.We still have a good laugh about it on Facebook every now and then.

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Shinseki really does not deserve for this to be his legacy. It's a shame that an accomplished man and decorated war hero takes the fall for the failures of a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats.

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When I has stationed in Gaeta, Italy. A friend of mine from high school, who joined a year before me, was stationed on the USS LaSalle. The home port for his ship was in Virginia I think. They did a 6 month European tour making several stops at different locations. Well, one day the LaSalle makes a stop in Gaeta. Me and some other friends were at a bar in downtown Gaeta, and guess who walks in....yep, my buddy from school. What are the oddsof that?

 

A little back story. I had seen the guy since he joined, I hadn't spoke with him since he graduated. He was more of an acquaintance then a friend really. Now our high school only had about 500 people total in it. I think that's pretty low odds of happening.We still have a good laugh about it on Facebook every now and then.

In my first assignment after AIT, I was in a Pershing Missile unit in hole in the wall post in Schwaebish Gmund Germany. Complete bullsh*t assignment, I hated that place, not the city -great German city- the focking Army. Working in maintenance during a drawdown is not the place you want to be, we were way overworked regularly (with no extra pay). The Pershings were the INF missiles that Reagan had negotiated away with the Soviets and the unit was drawing down most of my time there. There were two small kaserns (posts) there and our missile site nearby in Mutlangen. One battalion at the top of the huge hill and another battalion in the middle of town.

 

Just two battalions separated onto three posts. But wouldn't you know, on the other post was a classmate from HS who I hadn't realized was even interested in joining the military.

 

When the Gulf war hit, I thought I was going to miss it. Since I was drawing down this unit and had orders to deploy to another Pershing missile site to draw them down as well. We had a batallion-wide meeting in the gym -something that never happened- and the whole of us were split up into different groups. In my group, we were being vultured. Units destined to deploy to Saudi had priority and could claim our personnel to fill any vacanices they had. That's how I got snagged into the tanker unit 2nd Armor (FWD) and went to the Gulf War. So this meeting ends -at least I had my wits about me- I focking run...straight to the one public telephone on base. Open. First one there. So, I call my mom. By the time I hang up, there's a long line snaking waiting to use the phone.

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I did miss the gulf war. By the time I was out of boot and my A school, it was over. Was kinda over before I went to boot, but I joined because of it. After my A school, I was sent to Paris Island, SC with the Marines. I was an 8404 medic. A field medic trained specifically for the Marines and or combat basically. My time in Italy was on the Navy side....it was a nice change. It was just crazy odd, that I would run into someone like that, from my high school days.

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I got to Schwaebish Gmund in January 1990 and so missed out on all the fun: http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1986/Arrest-39-Protesters-at-Missile-Base/id-e2b877d01dee9fc2476ca8d3f61fd44d

 

We still had protesters but only on a few occasions and when we did only a small handful, never more than a dozen. The difference being that the nukes were already scheduled to be on the way out before I arrived. As for the local Germans in Schwaebish Gmund, I didn't hear a peep. I would have never known this had actually happened.

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More Americans than not think the U.S. government gives better health care to militants captured in the war on terrorism than to U.S. troops who may have fought them on the battlefield.

 

A Fox News poll released Wednesday finds that by a 50-31 percent margin, voters think enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay get better health care than veterans. Nearly one in five is unsure (18 percent).

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/05/fox-news-poll-voters-think-gitmo-prisoners-receive-better-health-care-than-vets/?intcmp=latestnews

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The Department of Veterans Affairs suspended a program that sent teams of doctors and monitors to try to improve its worst-performing facilities for approximately two years, according to a published report.

 

The Wall Street Journal, citing agency doctors and internal records, reported that the visits were "paused" beginning in early 2011. Dr. Carolyn Clancy, the head of the agency's quality and safety program, said the VA had begun to revive the program about a year ago.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/10/va-reportedly-stopped-sending-teams-to-try-to-improve-underperforming-hospitals/?intcmp=latestnews

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2011?

 

Can we still blame Bush?

He's responsible for causing all the injuries suffered in Iraq.

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President Obama’s 2016 budget blueprint proposes rolling back a program that gives veterans the right to receive faster care outside of the long waitlists at the troubled Veterans Affairs medical system.

 

Obama signed the Veterans Choice Program into law in August following months of partisan wrangling on Capitol Hill that finally led to a compromise measure to overhaul the agency

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The number of veterans seeking health care but ending up on waiting lists of one month or more is 50 percent higher now than it was a year ago when a scandal over false records and long wait times wracked the Department of Veterans Affairs, The New York Times reported.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/21/report-wait-lists-for-vets-even-longer-today-than-last-year/?intcmp=latestnews

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The number of veterans seeking health care but ending up on waiting lists of one month or more is 50 percent higher now than it was a year ago when a scandal over false records and long wait times wracked the Department of Veterans Affairs, The New York Times reported.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/21/report-wait-lists-for-vets-even-longer-today-than-last-year/?intcmp=latestnews

The VA is just focked up system with top down structure and no accountability. I don't know if it can be fixed.

 

If you're not happy with the care you're getting, you should be able to go somewhere else.

 

I'd give the VA healthcare system the same treatment I'd give Detroit Public schools ... just shut the whole thing down, use the money saved to give everybody that goes there vouchers so they can go to someplace else that doesn't completely suck.

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The VA is just focked up system with top down structure and no accountability. I don't know if it can be fixed.

 

If you're not happy with the care you're getting, you should be able to go somewhere else.

 

I'd give the VA healthcare system the same treatment I'd give Detroit Public schools ... just shut the whole thing down, use the money saved to give everybody that goes there vouchers so they can go to someplace else that doesn't completely suck.

The idea of a veterans only healthcare system is great. Their execution of it is horrible. I really do feel for the veterans who fought, appendages, were exposed to agent orange, ect that have to deal with these places. I do agree that if they are unsatisfied with the care they get at their VA then they should be allowed to go elsewhere. Just give them an insurance card issued by the government with hospitals and doctors offices that have been approved to see those veterans

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The VA is just focked up system with top down structure and no accountability. I don't know if it can be fixed.

 

If you're not happy with the care you're getting, you should be able to go somewhere else.

 

I'd give the VA healthcare system the same treatment I'd give Detroit Public schools ... just shut the whole thing down, use the money saved to give everybody that goes there vouchers so they can go to someplace else that doesn't completely suck.

Obama VOWED to fix this a year ago and even said it would not be tolerated. PERIOD.

 

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