Proposed Budget Cuts for Vets

Although this is just a proposed budget I find it very interesting that an administration that ran on preserving veteran programs and them would do the reverse. This extending choice program that has been ongoing for a year or two is not all it's cracked up to be, plus the cost of outside provider's if more than a drop in the bucket. This is not fixing the VA. You take the money and hire more docs and weed out the bad ones and administration of the VA, you don't cut vets benefits.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/05/23/budget-calls-cuts-va-programs-tradeoff-extending-choice.html

"Through these tradeoffs, VA will focus its budgetary resources on providing veterans with the most efficient and effective care and benefits," the budget reads.

In total, the president's budget calls for $82.1 billion in discretionary spending for the VA, an increase of about 6 percent from fiscal 2017. Once mandated funding is included, the budget surpasses $186 billion.

If passed by Congress, the VA's budget would be another in a succession of increases for the agency. When former President Barack Obama took office in 2008, the VA budget was about $90 billion. In 2012, it was $130 billion."

PkrBum wrote:"Through these tradeoffs, VA will focus its budgetary resources on providing veterans with the most efficient and effective care and benefits," the budget reads.

In total, the president's budget calls for $82.1 billion in discretionary spending for the VA, an increase of about 6 percent from fiscal 2017. Once mandated funding is included, the budget surpasses $186 billion.

If passed by Congress, the VA's budget would be another in a succession of increases for the agency. When former President Barack Obama took office in 2008, the VA budget was about $90 billion. In 2012, it was $130 billion."

So why would you think for one minute that outside care would be cheaper and more efficient? Ask some disabled vets how that works when they see an outside provider and it takes the VA months to pay? The collection letters from those providers? Hell, Tricare can't even pay mental health providers locally on time.

Tell me why should an unemployable disabled vet should lose some of their compensation when drawing social security? Yep come up with double dipping and I'll come up with double dipping for retired vets and drawing social security, which btw I've never been against.

It does not save money, in the long run, to pay outside providers when you can spend it to fix the VA. I never had any problems with the VA here, but that's not to say other parts of the country doesn't.

This is taking from one disable vet and trying to give to another where the program will not work. It's not working now.

"It's not working now"... but trying anything else is bloody murder. If anything... govt run shit sucks.

So it's a difficult to buy your argument. I also highly doubt that injured vets will wind up shorted.

PkrBum wrote:"It's not working now"... but trying anything else is bloody murder. If anything... govt run shit sucks.

So it's a difficult to buy your argument. I also highly doubt that injured vets will wind up shorted.

Except the military. Right?

In reality, the people who actually do the govt work are exceptional.

panhandler wrote:

PkrBum wrote:"It's not working now"... but trying anything else is bloody murder. If anything... govt run shit sucks.

So it's a difficult to buy your argument. I also highly doubt that injured vets will wind up shorted.

Except the military. Right?    

In reality, the people who actually do the govt work are exceptional.  

"govt run shit sucks" except:

• Social Security--take a look at the administrative costs vs. private pensions
  Medicare
  Interstate Highway System
  Federal Deposit Insurance
  National Weather Service
  CDC
  FDA
  WWII
  Marshall Plan
  The Hoover Dam and the Lincoln Tunnel
  The Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts
  

What a stupid comment!

panhandler wrote:

PkrBum wrote:"It's not working now"... but trying anything else is bloody murder. If anything... govt run shit sucks.

So it's a difficult to buy your argument. I also highly doubt that injured vets will wind up shorted.

Except the military. Right?    

In reality, the people who actually do the govt work are exceptional.  

The current military is an enormous waste of money... as I've said over and over. Nice strawman.

But the talkingpoints are conjecture and hyperbole. You may disagree with a trump policy... but you're just railing at guesses and most of those have intentional omissions and bias to tilt the messaging.

PkrBum wrote:

panhandler wrote:

PkrBum wrote:"It's not working now"... but trying anything else is bloody murder. If anything... govt run shit sucks.

So it's a difficult to buy your argument. I also highly doubt that injured vets will wind up shorted.

Except the military. Right?    

In reality, the people who actually do the govt work are exceptional.  

The current military is an enormous waste of money... as I've said over and over. Nice strawman.

But the talkingpoints are conjecture and hyperbole. You may disagree with a trump policy... but you're just railing at guesses and most of those have intentional omissions and bias to tilt the messaging.

Isn't little PkrBoy silly? He accuses others of using "conjecture and hyperbole" by using "conjecture and hyperbole". He's just too infantile to understand data and logic.

Isn't he the cutest little scamp though? Watch him do his "wittle snowflakes" dance.

Don't laugh at him, he thinks the grown-ups take him seriously.

What result of policy are you melting over snowflake?

PkrBum wrote: What result of policy are you melting over snowflake?

Right on time!

Little PkrBoy is so easy to manipulate. He's just so pathetic.

Run to mommy, little PkrBoy. She'll give you a hug and tell you what a clever little PkrBoy you are.

del.capslock wrote:

PkrBum wrote: What result of policy are you melting over snowflake?

Right on time!

Little PkrBoy is so easy to manipulate. He's just so pathetic.

Run to mommy, little PkrBoy. She'll give you a hug and tell you what a clever little PkrBoy you are.

Just as i thght. You're all wigged out over leftist talkingpoints and don't even know any results... lol.

Comrades are easy.

PkrBum wrote:

panhandler wrote:

PkrBum wrote:"It's not working now"... but trying anything else is bloody murder. If anything... govt run shit sucks.

So it's a difficult to buy your argument. I also highly doubt that injured vets will wind up shorted.

Except the military. Right?    

In reality, the people who actually do the govt work are exceptional.  

The current military is an enormous waste of money... as I've said over and over. Nice strawman.

But the talkingpoints are conjecture and hyperbole. You may disagree with a trump policy... but you're just railing at guesses and most of those have intentional omissions and bias to tilt the messaging.

The current military is an enormous waste of money... as I've said over and over.

So you back BRAC? It's in this budget also. Or do you back Trump rebuilding the military? You are kind of vague on what you back and do not back with Trump.

In this choice program there will be as much fraud and Medicare, if passed.
How many provider's will want to participate? Maybe just the ones that see extra dollars as in Medicare.

I argue about this but in reality this is just a proposed budget and with the nasty comments I have read from disabled vets on DAV that said they voted for him I wouldn't be too sure this will be passed in present form.

I have been dealing with this first hand. It's just such a complex web trying to navigate any system. The GOP, reacting to the story that veterans were "dying" on waiting lists, decided to bring in a 3rd party private firm to handle outside care. This 3rd party is hard to deal with for both the insured and the doctors' offices. You never get the same person twice on the phone. They have yet to send me a new application so that I can deal directly with my husband's billing issues. I have a stack of bills that I have to compare against the billing summary and decide who else I have to call to get everything resolved...and my husband has VA, Medicare and (because the hospital applied) Medicaid with share of cost. One doctor's office called to confirm my husband's appointment and called later to question it because they had not received authorization from Veteran's Choice. But I would rather my husband be treated at local facilities by private doctors than have to travel to Biloxi. The local clinic is more maintenance than pro-active...or at least my husband's last doctor, who recently retired, was that way. I like his current VA doctor, who finally took the time to address everything. There are flaws in any system, but sometimes those flaws are intentional.

Floridatexan wrote:
I have been dealing with this first hand.  It's just such a complex web trying to navigate any system.  The GOP, reacting to the story that veterans were "dying" on waiting lists, decided to bring in a 3rd party private firm to handle outside care.  This 3rd party is hard to deal with for both the insured and the doctors' offices.  You never get the same person twice on the phone.  They have yet to send me a new application so that I can deal directly with my husband's billing issues.  I have a stack of bills that I have to compare against the billing summary and decide who else I have to call to get everything resolved...and my husband has VA, Medicare and (because the hospital applied) Medicaid with share of cost.  One doctor's office called to confirm my husband's appointment and called later to question it because they had not received authorization from Veteran's Choice.  But I would rather my husband be treated at local facilities by private doctors than have to travel to Biloxi.  The local clinic is more maintenance than pro-active...or at least my husband's last doctor, who recently retired, was that way.  I like his current VA doctor, who finally took the time to address everything.  There are flaws in any system, but sometimes those flaws are intentional.

I understand the choice program payments to providers for all the U.S. is one central payment system out of Mississippi.

It looks good on paper putting more billions towards the vets, but it is not if the billions are actually coming from other vets.

Did his prior doctors name start with MO? I had him and he didn't give a shit about anything except talking about other docs out in the community here in Pensacola. He didn't listen to what I was telling him and didn't document much. If this was his doc he didn't retire, my VSO told me he was let go.

I can imagine the paperwork you have to use with the choice program and cost share at Medicaid probably isn't helping much. I would reapply every year for full Medicaid and if he was awarded the full, Medicaid will pay his part B premium. Also, it doesn't hurt to go down to social security office and apply for extra help paying his drugs, oh you would receive it also making the drugs dirt cheap and less than VA.

Any of these docs he's seeing with the choice program sending collection letters yet?

No late notices yet, but some of these billing people are annoying, and they don't want to deal with TriWest (based in Phoenix). All his meds come from the VA, so he had never even applied for Part B. There were a few issues, though, because his private doctors switched him to Elequis, and there were some antibiotics used at both the hospital and rehab center that were too expensive. On one med, I had to pick up samples from his nephrologist to carry him through until the VA approved it. He's still seeing a vascular surgeon, an appointment that had to be rescheduled once and almost a second time, because TriWest hadn't approved it, even though I called them and gave them the FAX number.

I've been through this before with my MIL's care. I took her to most appointments and scheduled some of them, and there are others that I drove to their appointments and/or sat in on them. It takes a lot of time and focus to be a patient advocate.

Floridatexan wrote:
 It takes a lot of time and focus to be a patient advocate.

How many of them are Trump supporters? (honest question, and by "them" I mean VA patients)