VA Scandal. What do you think?

[PegLeg45]

My Dad is classed as 100% disabled due to long term effects of his service during the Korean war.
His experience has been the same as Crusader Rabbit's.
Some facilities are real good while others suck.

Yep.....and many fall in the middle ground.

The one we used to take my f-i-l to for his visits (and sometimes weekly stays) was painfully understaffed for the number of vets there. Most of the guys we saw there were Korean War and WWII aged gentlemen, and had progressed to the point of needing vigilant attention...... but with around ten rooms per ward, and each room having six patients, and only four nurses per ward....well, things were left undone.
For many patients that had overnight (or extended) stays, routine care was left up to visiting family members if the patient wasn't capable (we drove the 100 mile one-way trip every day). Sadly, many of these men were alone.....day in and day out, no one came to visit...and some couldn't feed themselves and were reduced to waiting on a nurse that might happen by to help (and yes, my wife and I helped where we could).

It could have been much worse, I guess.....but dang sure could have been much better also.

These folks deserve better.....they've earned better.

[billt]

As someone who has gone to the VA in the past, this is not surprise.  They seem like they do everything in their power to get you to not use the VA.  I sustained an injury to my shoulder while in the service and was hoping to get treatment for it but the hassle of dealing with the VA was not worth it so I just paid for whatever I needed myself.

I pretty much have 0 faith that anything we actually get fixed.  This is just how large bureaucracies work by their nature and until people figure  that out nothing will change.

This is exactly what private health care insurance companies do, so you won't use the short and long term disability they offer with their plans. When I went in for my hernia surgery a few years back, I was going to be off for several weeks. I asked in advance for the forms I needed to fill out, in order to get the short term disability they offered.

I received a mountain of paperwork that I had to complete, and even more forms for the doctor to complete. I completed them, as did he, sent them in, and I never received a cent. When I inquired, they returned the forms with areas circled in red ink, that, according to them, were incorrectly filled out. These were all simple, direct questions that were answered correctly by both of us. There was really no other way to answer them.

At that point I just threw everything in the trash, because by then I had returned to work. This is how the bulk of them operate. They simply make everything far more trouble than it's worth regarding benifits. I can imagine the government is ten times worse.

[Rastus]

<snip>I received a mountain of paperwork that I had to complete, and even more forms for the doctor to complete. I completed them, as did he, sent them in, and I never received a cent. When I inquired, they returned the forms with areas circled in red ink, that, according to them, were incorrectly filled out. These were all simple, direct questions that were answered correctly by both of us. There was really no other way to answer them.
<snip>

I hate going to a lawyer...but sometimes you are due money from the insurance company thieves.  Also, if they sent you information saying that you had filled the forms out incorrectly when you did fill them out correctly and they stated that in a letter through the US Mail you can file mail fraud charges.  No need for them to not be miserable with a US Postal Inspector perched in their office.  Mail fraud is not just for Ponzi schemes...but "respectable" companies too.