No

Medicare just paid for, and I quote, MOST of it. Do you know what most means? This means most of the financial bill. Wtf. These are your own words

40 year VA patients are getting stents every day and end up with tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of bills, every single day

I’m not proposing Medicare for vets is the only option, it’s one that would work overnight however because nothing improves standards like competition, and for everyone <65 there is no competition

Feel free to propose a solution yourself

This post was edited by Bazi on Jan 22 2024 07:11am

The part Medicare didn't pay was more than I get in a year, from SSI.
So... like I said... the VA saved my ass.

Respectfully, I’m going to need you to stop dodging if this is going to go anywhere sir

I understand you have been a VA patient for the last 25 years. I cannot attest what it was like at that time, but I can quite confidently attest to its state 2014 and onwards.

It is in complete shambles, my initial post was just a few points I could go on longer. If the VA being in shambles is not a point of contention, then move forward with how to fix it

This bill conversation is an absolute no brainer. Since you provided the numbers, how much of the 68k was paid for Medicare and how much the VA. Do you not understand that there are many vets without Medicare and if you were late 50s when you had your MI the bill would have been your burden? VA helped you cover some costs, sure. Medicare saved you from bankruptcy. Your VA like 99% of them didn’t have an interventional cardiologist on call to stent you so they shipped you to a hospital that could get the job done.

I am still waiting for your proposed solution on how to “fix” the VA

This post was edited by Bazi on Jan 22 2024 07:30am

First off... the ambulance wouldn't take me to the VA, even though it was just as close as the hospital they took me to.

The solution to the VA problems is to stop closing VAs and start throwing money at them. It's not rocket science.
But... when the money, for example is going to pay for 100's of thousands of illegal immigrant BS... the citizens who went and served their country, among others, get the short end of the stick.

Like Elvis said.... "Clean up your own back yard", ...first. THEN, worry about giving all that tax payer money away, to illegals.
I'm ofc, just using immigration as an example. Like the video in post #22.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jan 22 2024 08:43am

The ambulance wouldn’t take you there because they didn’t have an interventional cardiologist on call. No real difference here

The VA had a budget of 295 billion in 2023

Up to 325 billion in 2024

You can throw money at this furnace, it’s not going to fix the intrinsic issues. What other hospital system gets hand outs of this degree? None. And every other hospital system is superior. Money doesn’t save a failed culture. You can give an extra 100 billion to the VA, it won’t solve anything.

If vets had Medicare, the VA would be shut overnight because it is disgustingly sub par. Our veterans are offered similar level of care to our inmates.

What really is your opposition to giving vets Medicare? Cost? How much would it cost do you even know this figure? Vs your willing to waste I don’t even know countless billions by trying to fix a completely broken and inept system

Answer the question please, of your 68k hospital bill, how much did Medicare pay and how much did the VA pay

This post was edited by Bazi on Jan 22 2024 08:48am

You're using circular logic.
The VA is a federal agency... which is why the govt. pays for it.
The amounts the VA gets, is what's subpar. You claimed that yourself in the first post you made on this topic.

The Gumball video is nothing but the reality of the numbers. No matter how many people we help through immigration... they will breed even faster.
That's the whole problem with every third world country. Over-breeding.
They have more children than they can afford to support. Again... not rocket science.

Obama was the one that started closing the VAs. I assume this was to make his Obama Care, look attractive?
IF there were limits on illegal immigration... Obama Care might have been a good thing.

But... it's right back to the Gumball numbers, yet again. NO system can afford to support 100's of thousands of illegals. Most of which aren't paying taxes, anyway.
It's a lose-lose situation. The Gumballs, don't lie. It's just basic math.

I’m not talking about illegals, America will throw money at any problem, there is no actual budgeting. This notion we aren’t throwing more money at the VA because of illegal immigration is not grounded in reality. Every time, in recent history (last decade) the VA has asked for more money, it has been granted

Obamacare was an enormous blunder and catalyzed the way for corporate take over of medicine, but I’m not talking about this either and serves as an additional distractor

When you throw in these distractors and ignore the heart of the issue, it’s usually telling

The point is no degree of funding will help some of the problems that exist. If you have a salary cap for example, you will never recruit a specialist worth their grain. No self respecting interventional cards is taking call at a VA taking on same liability for a 50% haircut in pay. This is one specialty of the >10 they are universally lacking in. Hell, they cannot even recruit internal medicine doctors at a reasonable level. VA nurses already make similar amounts to their community hospital partners with increased benefits, yet they still are not able to recruit the amount of quality nurses needed, why? You don’t change a culture of mediocrity with more money. The money will go to more unnecessary modules, such has been the trend.

We will agree to disagree, don’t have time keep going back and forth. I do suspect if you were <65 your opinion would be different but you have the benefit of Medicare so you are going to be inherently biased since the majority of VA pitfalls don’t apply to you. I find this disheartening that you are willing to subject younger vets to sub par care, knowing you have graduated to Medicare and have a viable healthcare. It is truly a weird case of Stockholm syndrome

I will ask one last time before I leave the thread, of your 68k bill, how much did Medicare cover vs the VA?

You keep mentioning a salary cap. I've never heard of that... ever.
Currently, the VA uses doctors from other hospitals. They work at the VA like 1-3 days a week, and at other hospitals or private practices, the rest of the time.

Yes, the VA asks for money, and they get money... but it's never how much they asked for.

And yes... a lot of the current problems in this country are due to the illegal immigration.

I'm not some inhuman jerk. I like to help people. But we need to do that AFTER we've helped our own people.

The fact that you have never heard of it doesn’t mean anything tbh. It’s only relevant to doctors. For most people 400k cap doesn’t seem like a big deal but if you’re capable of 700, 800s, it is going to matter, and it does.

Correct, the VA will pay out of their ass for a private doc to come a few days a week to see patients. You have a stent, do you see your cardiologist at their private office or does the cardiologist come to the VA? They are not a full time VA employee regardless, because no cardiologist will sign up for that. It is a grossly ineffective use of dollars. But hey, we are talking about the VA where financial ineffectiveness with substandard care is par

Let’s try a last time:
1. How much would Medicare for all vets cost?
2. How much money are you proposing throwing at the broken VA to fix it?

And
3. How much did Medicare cover of your 68k hospital bill?

This post was edited by Bazi on Jan 22 2024 09:35am

I see my cardiologist at the VA... she's young and cute, and looks like Sarah Silverman.


Medicare paid for I'd say 75%. 75% of 60K is $15k, which is just about what I get per year from SSI.
I have a "stack" of letters, that list what the cost was, what the VA paid and what Medicare paid. There must be about 20 of them, just from the heart attack.
On the first few... it seems Medicare is paying about 75%.

Btw... they put in two stents, in the same location in my right coronary artery. One big one and a smaller one inside the big one.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jan 22 2024 09:42am