VA Hospital

[raysr]

While at the VA hospital in Seattle yesterday, it hit me like stone, if ever there was a glaring example of failed US foreign policy the VA hospital and the need for them is it.
With the exception of WWII, 90+% of everyone using the facilties is VietNam related and Desert Storm I. What a disgusting way to treat America's young men. Some, like me, use the facilities because they can't afford health insurance, not a service connected injury. Never-the-less, it's disgusting, either way you look at it. The hospital in Seattle is really a shining example of how universal health can be run efficiently and cost effective. I am proud of the Seattle VA Hospital, but ashamed of the reasons that it needs to exist.

[Olney Blue]

1. I'm sorry you can't affort health insurance. Did you serve in Iraq?

[raysr]

2. No, Viet Nam era.

I just the need for VA hospitals that struck me. All those men, for what?

[acmejack]

3. Almost everyone there now is Vietnam Era.

The Korean guys are thinning out, there are Desert Storm One people, just seeing the OIL, oops OIF, guys coming in. I'm service connected but most people are indeed just w/o insurance coverage and don't make enough money to be disqualified from getting care. And truth be told there are a lot more people that want in and can't get in there. They are so overloaded it takes six weeks to get in for physical therapy for the service connected problems, which get priority treatment. It can take up to six months to see a neurologist or some other high demand specialties.

They do a phenomenal job with what they are dealt though, I am not putting them down in any way. They have kept my sorry ass alive much, much longer than the doctors told me would be possible three decades ago. I am very, very pleased, at this point I feel a lot like one of the the MARs Rovers!

[Olney Blue]

4. Good question.

:cry: