Medical Malpractice

Are VA Hospitals a good example of how National Healthcare would be?

Public Comments

1. If so it would be a prety good system, I hve been in a few!
2. If our society neglects the things that truly matter.. then yes. We tend to be distracted alot. And send more money overseas to help others instead.
3. No because they only serve a small portion of the population, the military people.
4. Yes and that is why I am fighting so hard against it. USAF Veteran
5. Yes, it would be a perfect example. Trust me, it is nothing that the American Citizens want. What ever happened to SMALLER government? Sometimes, I wish I lived 150 years ago! Life would be a lot simpler and not have to worry about offending anyone!
6. Well I think it would be a good blueprint to work off. I have been enrolled in the program for quite a few years. Complaints, yes I have had a few but overall I have been cared for very well. Some geographical problems but then that is to be expected. Can not compare the care received in Boston to the care in St Petersburg.
7. Sadly, no, it would be worse.
8. Overall it would be a good system. You just have to watch out for the "problem areas" in the Nationalized System.
9. It would be exactly the same. That's why you dont want Universal Health Care here. If you want quality, then you better give the people that are working for you money. People arn't going to give you their best out of the kindness of their heart. Universal Health Care is going to turn into the way the VA and Public school system is. It's going to suck and the people working for them are going to be underpaid, over worked, and exausted.
10. Not even close. The VA Hospital System is the only government program that comes close to working - so you won't find any other part of the government operating like it. Now, it is an excellent example, but its not bureaucratic enough to suit Washington. It works now because a few years ago, DVA somehow got a business manager as a cabinet member. He performed wonders for the system that was a mess before that. When the US does get universal health care, the government will have to manage to keep big insurance companies, hospitals, health care corporations and pharmacuetical companies all happy and profitable. That's why its taking so long. National Healthcare should start by combining Medicaid, Medicare, the VA system and the military system under one umbrella first and gradually filter everyone else in. The problem with that is, as usual, politics. Everyone wants their own system and it will never work with that attitude.
11. i hope not, at least the way it was run in the 80's anyway~!!! thier was an old Vet next to me waiting to get seen by a doctor since they first opend up that morning coughing his lungs out, gaspin for breath, and we set there for 7 hours, and i went up and told the receptionist that they should give that guy some assistance~!!! some young intern behind her said "well he will just have to wait, after all he is getting free health care"~!!!! i went to the hospital administrater and told him if he didn't do something about that dude that said that i was goin to meet him outside in the parking lot after his shift~!!! the administrater called him into the office and reprimanded him for makig that coment and the dude shut his mouth whenever i saw him again~!!!! and the old Vet was finally taken in to see the doctor~!!!!
12. I've seen the ins and outs of the VA. Trips to the doctors would take all day. Abuse rampant. Corruption run amock. People don't understand that if we hand over control of our money, corruption goes out of control and quality suffer. I aslo talked to workers in other Federal agencies involved with health care. There is a free vaccination proram that is rarely used. Why, because they don't want people to know about it and have to buy the vaccine. My guess is to take our tax dollars and feed it to corporations.
13. I think a better example could be found in the public school systems in America. In the US now, the gov't requires all children to attend a school that teaches a curriculum which is approved and sanctioned by a group of bureaucrats, some of whom have degrees in Education, and some who do not. Were we to embrace a public healthcare system, everyone would be required to participate. As with public schools, those who refused to play would ultimately be imprisoned. And the quality of the healthcare would be similar to the quality of the government enforced education. It will finally destroy what few freedoms we have left and drive our economy beyond the brink. Socialism/Communism has been tried over and over again. The reason it is doomed to fail has little to do with party, but has everything to do with not only a lack of voluntary participation, but also the blatant use of deadly force to accomplish various social and political goals. Many who subscribe to this ideology of coercion see themselves as kind, and caring people. They simply don't follow the logic nor will they look at and see the steps and stages required to *force* people to do whatever these do-gooders envision as "fair" and right. And as with VA hospitals or public schools, no matter how much money is wrested involuntarily (at gunpoint if necessary) from the body of the people, there will simply never be enough to fulfill all the needed wishes of people who believe they are entitled to this form of welfare, (not unlike the attitude of Canadians.) And the only possible solution that will be implemented must be rationing. Which translates into extremely long waits in queue to be treated for both the most minor and the most threatening-to-life illnesses and maladies.