On 10/27/06, Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Nick, it's not really that simple. My dad and uncles were vets, and I grew up with their views of the VA. Ending up in a VA hospital was considered a very bad thing at the time. The VA administration was considered as a last resort.
How nice for them that they had a choice. I suspect you'll find that the problems they ran into were not caused by the VA wasting money. More likely it was wasting their time fighting the rules and regulations that make many vets reluctant to fight for their rights. It wasn't that the nation wasn't spending money on the VA. It's been a hard
to reform bureaucracy for ~60 years now. Weber's law (a bureaucrat will work for his own ends not the ends for which his job was created) has had years to rule. Anyone who tries to cut waste is accused of "attacking our Veterans."
Ah. Shifting the costs onto the veterans is cutting waste, is it? How is that so? If there's waste, now it is more of the vets' money that is wasted, rather than everybody's money wasted. How do you justify that? Back in my dad's day, there was a unhealthy co-dependant relationship
between some of the vets and the VA. I suspect the same still exists. What is really needed is someone with the political courage to reform the VA system....but that won't happen because it would almost automatically guarantee they will lose the next election.
What sort of reform did you have in mind? As a health care provider, the VA is very efficient, delivering more quality health services per dollar than any other large health care organization in the United States. I refer you to Brad DeLong, for example: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2006/01/paul_krugman_on_1.html. Yet those brilliant Republicans in Congress can see that they're elminating "waste" by cutting its budget! There's a lot of call for reform of the VA... but it is by people who are sick of Congress and the executive branch taking away more and more of veterans' rights and services while demanding that they pay a greater share. How about reforming the incredible delays and denials that vets face... but that would cost more, not less, since more vets would actually be able to use the system. Those who want to keep the VA costs down are opposed to real reform because they know that the budget would have to go up if they removed all the obstacles that prevent or discourage many vets from taking advantage of the benefits they earned. Yeah, reform now. Eliminate the efficiency with which the rules and regulations deny and discourage vets from receiving the benefits they've earned. It is sad that people accept the conservative propaganda that says to assume that any large government bureaucracy is inherently inefficient. The VA is a fine example to the contrary in terms of delivering quality health care at low cost. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
