Obamacare or the VA: You call that a choice?

[OldJourno]

As a less than distinguished columnist, I've taken my share of shots at both Obamacare and the health care available through the VA. Fortunately, I had been immune to both thanks to the ever more expensive "free" health care provided by my employer.
Now I'm retired and my Obamacare is "free." Of course, it's an HMO and I have to get a referral from a doc I don't know to see a specialist I do know, at a cost of $130, including $100 for each visit to a specialist. Urgent care copay is $100 and the ER copay is $750.
Are you fucking kidding me?
The cherry on top is that if I get back into the job market, there's a very real possibility that my Obamacare will go from "free" (see above) to about 20 percent of my income, and that doesn't include how much I'll pay in taxes. The cheapest non-subsidized premium is over $1,000 a month.
That's not a typo. Only government could cobble together rules so twisted the premium is $1,000 a month and it's called "affordable."
So I switched to the VA in the same state where rigged appointment stats covered up the deaths of 40 or so veterans waiting ... and waiting ... to see a doctor.

 

[Sean]

You should move to a civilised country.

 

[JohnnySavage]

I was with Blue Cross for 20 years, then switched to the VA about five years ago. I couldn't be happier. The VA is an order of magnitude better then private health care.

 

[Hypoxia]

By 'Obamacare' you mean 'Romneycare', the GOP counter-proposal to HRC's single-payer plan of a couple decades back. GOP got what they wanted but under the wrong name so they hate it. 'X-care' under either name still siphons-off many healthcare dollars to enrich execs and shareholders. You like giving your money to leeches? Fine.

 

[BotanyBoy]

By 'Obamacare' you mean 'Romneycare', the GOP counter-proposal to HRC's single-payer plan of a couple decades back. GOP got what they wanted but under the wrong name so they hate it. 'X-care' under either name still siphons-off many healthcare dollars to enrich execs and shareholders. You like giving your money to leeches? Fine.

Are you trying to blame the 100% passed by (D)'s with 0% GOP support ACA on the GOP still?

LOL fuckin' pathetic.

 

[VaticanAssassin]

I was with Blue Cross for 20 years, then switched to the VA about five years ago. I couldn't be happier. The VA is an order of magnitude better then private health care.

Some are....

Most are like going to the post office.

I've never been lucky enough to live next to a good one.

 

[OldJourno]

I was with Blue Cross for 20 years, then switched to the VA about five years ago. I couldn't be happier. The VA is an order of magnitude better then private health care.

I've heard bad and good about the VA here. The next stop up the VA food chain is a bigger clinic about 120 miles away. Had a friend there in dire need of a pacemaker who was told to drive home and come back next week.
He finally got his pacemaker a few weeks later at a private hospital.
I'm mostly in good health now. If the VA is great I'll stick with it. If it sucks, I hope I'll be able to go back to my old doctors with Medicare.

 

[OldJourno]

By 'Obamacare' you mean 'Romneycare', the GOP counter-proposal to HRC's single-payer plan of a couple decades back. GOP got what they wanted but under the wrong name so they hate it. 'X-care' under either name still siphons-off many healthcare dollars to enrich execs and shareholders. You like giving your money to leeches? Fine.

This may be the most ridiculous post ever.
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any elected official in Arizona pleased with $1,000 a month premiums. And some Democrats wonder why more young people don't sign up.

 

[Ms_Ann]

I had a 3 week gig in a southern VA psych ward. Holy fuck.

 

[Fata Morgana]

I had a 3 week gig in a southern VA psych ward. Holy fuck.

No one would be surprised at this. Mental bastard.

 

[OldJourno]

I had a 3 week gig in a southern VA psych ward. Holy fuck.

I wish they'd rinse off that leather strap you bite down on during electroshock. Mine was still soggy from the previous veteran's treatment.

 

[Ms_Ann]

I wish they'd rinse off that leather strap you bite down on during electroshock. Mine was still soggy from the previous veteran's treatment.

“No, my friend. We are lunatics from the hospital up the highway, psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of mankind. Would you like me to decipher a Rorschach for you?”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

 

[OldJourno]

“No, my friend. We are lunatics from the hospital up the highway, psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of mankind. Would you like me to decipher a Rorschach for you?”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Or is that the pot calling the cattle back?

 

[Ms_Ann]

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Or is that the pot calling the cattle back?

My sister's husband drank himself to death. That's how he dealt with Vietnam. The VA didn't notice his liver quit working.

 

[OldJourno]

My sister's husband drank himself to death. That's how he dealt with Vietnam. The VA didn't notice his liver quit working.

Tragic. And too common.
Reminds me of the reports of veterans calling the VA suicide hotline and never getting a response.

 

[GiaCat]

I had a 3 week gig in a southern VA psych ward. Holy fuck.

Did it include your own padded suite?

 

[VaticanAssassin]

My sister's husband drank himself to death. That's how he dealt with Vietnam. The VA didn't notice his liver quit working.

A ex's father was diagnosed with MS. 30 years later once he had lost almost all movement they discovered it was actually a slow growing tumor in his neck/spine. He died during the operation to remove.

Yea VA!!!

 

[Hypoxia]

This may be the most ridiculous post ever.

Alas, it's true. Look it up. If reality is ridiculous to you, you have a problem. If you can't deal with reality, reality will surely deal with you. Don't inhale.

 

[JohnnySavage]

People provide anecdotes about poor service at the VA, without ever holding the private insurers/providers to the same standard.

Do some people wait too long for a VA appointment? Yes.
Are some people denied competent service at the VA? Yes.

The same thing happens in the private sector. In a head-to-head comparison though, the VA does a much better job.

While the standard for the VA should be "perfection", the fact of the matter is that the VA serves millions of people, many of them old and in need of complex health care, and there are going to be short comings.

 

[Conager]

People provide anecdotes about poor service at the VA, without ever holding the private insurers/providers to the same standard.

Do some people wait too long for a VA appointment? Yes.
Are some people denied competent service at the VA? Yes.

The same thing happens in the private sector. In a head-to-head comparison though, the VA does a much better job.

While the standard for the VA should be "perfection", the fact of the matter is that the VA serves millions of people, many of them old and in need of complex health care, and there are going to be short comings.

That has been your own anecdotal experience but I don't think statistics bear that out. When those have been published the VA wait times are abysmal. Phoenix specifically it was months and months to see a doctor we're talking Canadian Healthcare System bad.

I remember when hmos came out and they were supposed to be the solution to everything when really that outgrowth of the Hillary care debztes was kind of a disaster initially. You would join an HMO only to find out that all the doctors in the plan weren't taking any new patients or couldn't see you in any reasonable length of time. These days that's hardly reported on. Some individual plans do have those sort of problems.

 

[Adre]

My doc said fuck it all and went concierge. Pay your annual dues and get a 24/7 cell phone number for healthcare.

 

[JohnnySavage]

That has been your own anecdotal experience but I don't think statistics bear that out. When those have been published the VA wait times are abysmal. Phoenix specifically it was months and months to see a doctor we're talking Canadian Healthcare System bad.

I remember when hmos came out and they were supposed to be the solution to everything when really that outgrowth of the Hillary care debztes was kind of a disaster initially. You would join an HMO only to find out that all the doctors in the plan weren't taking any new patients or couldn't see you in any reasonable length of time. These days that's hardly reported on. Some individual plans do have those sort of problems.

I spent a few years in the Washington DC VA region, and am now in the Clarksburg, WV region. Both have been excellent. I need an appointment (which is fairly rare, admittedly), I go on the web site and am shown a calendar with available slots, I pick one and get an email confirmation. I've never had an occasion when there wasn't an appointment available within a week or so. If it's an emergency, I can go to any hospital and get treated.

Additionally, because I am more then 40 miles from the nearest VA clinic, I have the option of going to a local non-VA doctor. I've never done that though because I enjoy the ride through the wilds of WV for my appointments.

 

[pointless]

People provide anecdotes about poor service at the VA, without ever holding the private insurers/providers to the same standard.

Do some people wait too long for a VA appointment? Yes.
Are some people denied competent service at the VA? Yes.

The same thing happens in the private sector. In a head-to-head comparison though, the VA does a much better job.

While the standard for the VA should be "perfection", the fact of the matter is that the VA serves millions of people, many of them old and in need of complex health care, and there are going to be short comings.

like when they wait months to make decisions on giving that care because they are clearly hoping you'll die before they make their decision.

seriously. fuck the va.

 

[RobDownSouth]

People provide anecdotes about poor service at the VA, without ever holding the private insurers/providers to the same standard.

Do some people wait too long for a VA appointment? Yes.
Are some people denied competent service at the VA? Yes.

The same thing happens in the private sector. In a head-to-head comparison though, the VA does a much better job.

While the standard for the VA should be "perfection", the fact of the matter is that the VA serves millions of people, many of them old and in need of complex health care, and there are going to be short comings.

"Anecdata" is the coin of teh conservative realm.

And you absolutely nailed it, its clientele consists largely of people who don't have health insurance, don't take good care of themselves, and aren't eligible for Medicare.

The VA does the best job they can with the funding the got.

 

[Conager]

"Anecdata" is the coin of teh conservative realm.

And you absolutely nailed it, its clientele consists largely of people who don't have health insurance, don't take good care of themselves, and aren't eligible for Medicare.

The VA does the best job they can with the funding the got.

You like trotting out your little canned phrases for rebuttal that you borrowed from elsewhere years ago and have recycled ad infinitum. You've used that anectdata phrase so often that you forgotten what it even means. What Johnny is reporting is his own anecdotal experience.