[Vision2020] Ben Carson suggests doing away with Department of Veterans Affairs

Sat Aug 29 18:16:14 PDT 2015

The Veterans Administration has invested significant resources into 
Information Technology for patient information systems that appear to do 
their job better than analogous private sector systems.  Improving the 
existing single-payor VA system likely would be more efficient and less 
expensive than attempting to upgrade hundreds or thousands of private 
systems in various piecemeal fashions to meet the needs of a huge influx 
of veterans requiring long-term care.

*http://tinyurl.com/pnb5f4u

After we have completed an upgrade of the VA systems to handle the 
nation's unfortunate warriors from our last quarter-century's 
misadventures, perhaps we can use some of the favorable lessons learned 
to upgrade our national health care system to a more effective 
single-payor system for everyone.

Intelligent health care administration includes not wasting resources to 
reinvent wheels already turning.

Ken

*
On 8/29/2015 5:19 PM, lfalen wrote:
> If they did not go to a VA hospital but to some other hospital the 
> government should pay. The same as they would at a VA hospital.
> Roger
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Ben Carson suggests doing away with 
> Department of Veterans Affairs
> From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
> To: lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com>
> Date: 08/30/15 02:09:52
>
> Mr. Falen -
>
> The DVA works!  It simply needs some realignment.  Closing down the 
> DVA and requiring veterans to seek medical assistance from a local 
> non-VA hospital will be costly to the veteran.  The current system 
> provides tremendous care for for the low-income, as well as the 
> homeless veteran, a service that will be extremely difficult, if at 
> all, for those veterans to obtain.
>
> Just who do you expect to pay the bill for those facilities?
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "There's room at the top they are telling you still.
> But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
> If you want to be like the folks on the hill."
>
> - John Lennon
>
> On Aug 29, 2015, at 2:44 PM, lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com 
> <index.html?_n%5Bp%5D%5Bmain%5D=win.main.tree&_n%5Bp%5D%5Bcontent%5D=mail.compose&to=lfalen at turbonet.com>> 
> wrote:
>
>> Tom
>>
>> I think that you are miss -reading Carson. He does not want to shaft 
>> veterans. Instead of waiting months for service and driving hundreds 
>> of miles to a VA Hospital, he wants   them to be able to get service 
>> at any hospital.
>>
>> Roger
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> Subject: [Vision2020] Ben Carson suggests doing away with Department 
>> of Veterans Affairs
>> From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com 
>> <index.html?_n%5Bp%5D%5Bmain%5D=win.main.tree&_n%5Bp%5D%5Bcontent%5D=mail.compose&to=thansen at moscow.com>>
>> To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com 
>> <index.html?_n%5Bp%5D%5Bmain%5D=win.main.tree&_n%5Bp%5D%5Bcontent%5D=mail.compose&to=vision2020 at moscow.com>>
>> Date: 08/28/15 20:16:12
>>
>> Just as you think you've heard everything ignorant, in comes Ben 
>> Carson to prove you wrong.
>>
>> Courtesy of /Stars and Stripes/ at:
>>
>> http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/ben-carson-suggests-doing-away-with-department-of-veterans-affairs-1.364984
>>
>> ---------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>   Ben Carson suggests doing away with Department of Veterans Affairs
>>
>> Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson suggested eliminating the 
>> Department of Veterans Affairs in a talk radio interview Wednesday, 
>> leading to swift condemnation from one veterans group.
>> The former Johns Hopkins pediatric neurosurgeon said problems with 
>> the Veterans Affairs health system are discouraging people from 
>> joining the military in the first place and said there needed to be a 
>> single system to take care of active duty troops as well as those who 
>> are no longer serving.
>> "We don't need a Department of Veterans Affairs," Carson told host 
>> Dave Ramsey. "Veterans Affairs should be folded in under the 
>> Department of Defense. And it should be a smooth transition. We need 
>> to be looking at the way we take care of soldiers."
>> Instead of the current system that provides treatment for veterans at 
>> government-run hospitals, Carson suggested that they should have a 
>> health savings account that would pay for treatment at any medical 
>> facility. The VA facilities could then be used for specialized 
>> treatments for traumatic brain injuries and limb replacements - 
>> problems that particularly afflict veterans.
>> But Paul D. Eaton, a retired Army major general and adviser to 
>> progressive political group VoteVets.org <http://VoteVets.org>, said 
>> Carson's plan was an insult to veterans.
>> "Rather than think of ways to nickel and dime our veterans, Dr. 
>> Carson should be thinking of other areas of fat in government - 
>> particularly in defense contracts - that can be cut, so we can hire 
>> more doctors and caregivers, to provide returning veterans with the 
>> kind of care they earned," Eaton said in a statement.
>> In the past 18 months the VA health system has been shaken by 
>> revelations that some doctors manipulated wait lists and fresh 
>> questions over the availability of care for veterans. Veterans 
>> Affairs Secretary Robert A. McDonald, who was put in place to clean 
>> up the department, is scheduled to be in Baltimore next week to 
>> address the American Legion convention.
>> Henry Howard, a spokesman for the American Legion, said the problems 
>> have been a priority for veterans, but that most former service 
>> members are happy with the care that they get through the VA.
>> "A large percent of veterans getting healthcare are great, the 
>> veterans love it," he said.
>> ---------------------------------------
>>
>> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>>
>> "Moscow Cares"
>> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>> Tom Hansen
>> Moscow, Idaho
>>
>> "There's room at the top they are telling you still.
>> But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
>> If you want to be like the folks on the hill."
>>
>> - John Lennon
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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