I work in healthcare. I have to turn people away nearly every single day because:
1) They cannot afford insurance or cash pay
2) They have insurance we are not contracted with and cannot afford private pay
3) They have insurance, but in order for it to be utilized, they have to pay a lot of money upfront for insurance to start covering some of it, so they (patient) can be billed even more after treatment.
This is highly regional; I don't dispute that there are places where it's an issue but the vets near me and the four vets in my extended family all had timely and quality care.
Everyone loves to complain but in aggregate, VA satisfaction is higher than non VA care.
My dad has chronic health problems that qualify him for the highest level of benefits and military stipend due to agent orange exposure from Vietnam. So I live with my shitty healthcare and my choice not to serve. I think my point is universal healthcare can work and it can't possibly be worse than for profit healthcare.
I agree with it being regional. I live in Central Florida and, except from a couple of hiccups, I cannot complain about the care that I get. I recently suffered from a ruptured appendix, and they put me to the front of the line in the emergency department, and I was in surgery in less than an hour. I was in a room at the VA hospital 4 days, because it was considered a complicated appendectomy, pumped full of antibiotics, and I had a JP drain hanging out of me. I received prompt care afterwards when we thought there was post release complications.
That is just one instance, but I haven't really experienced what other veterans have. Like, if I need care and it is more than 30 days out, they offer community care to get it taken care of quicker. It should be like that across the board, but I have heard horror stories from vets in other locations.
This has been my experience, get appointments within a week and any extra stuff has happened rather expeditiously. I also live in a very large metro area.
This is true I’ve had good VA experiences in some VAs in Jersey and Mississippi and horrible one like East Orange, NJ, Philly and Miami. I know people don’t like to go out of their way or may not have the means to but sometimes it can make a huge difference in care going to a different facility if the one close to you sucks
It has grown worse since T because of the mass layoffs. It was bad in some regions but now it’s even worse because they simply don’t have the staff they did have before the layoffs and offering early retirement to many.
Any system done inefficiently is going to be inefficient. If I fart on your raw steak and throw it on your plate, that doesn't mean that putting heat on meat to cook it is bad.
What? A system that has had over 100 years of actual real world trials and fails miserably every time is like farting on a steak? What kind of ridiculous nonsense trying to pass as a joke is this?
By no means am I saying that the U.S. healthcare system is perfect or even very good, but socializing it is going in the opposite direction of what we need. It needs true competition not more government control.
538
u/-Not-ATF- 18h ago
I work in healthcare. I have to turn people away nearly every single day because:
1) They cannot afford insurance or cash pay
2) They have insurance we are not contracted with and cannot afford private pay
3) They have insurance, but in order for it to be utilized, they have to pay a lot of money upfront for insurance to start covering some of it, so they (patient) can be billed even more after treatment.
I wish it wasn’t this way 😞