Scrap the entire VA and start over. Give Vets healthcare credit cards till you can get it right.

I support outsourcing the care and I don't see it as being much different as being on Tricare prime remote. There is not a post near by I go to a civilian provider and the military pays. The VA is back logged let vets see civilians and the VA pays...how is this bad?

The VA is like each state's dept of motor vehicles - it's a big honking white elephant in the middle of the room. Everyone knows its there, knows its a broken and has been broken for years but no one will do anything about it. Everyone blames the problems on over-administration, under funding, the wind on a rainy Tuesday morning, anything and any excuse but still nothing gets fixed. Right now you'd think we have the best possible chance of getting things fixed with a former Army chief of staff at the helm - and still nothing. Time to start fresh - unless of course they scrap it all and leave vets at the mercy of obama-care.

Let the VA work it out but under severe scrutiny. As I type this I realize I sound like a Polly Anna. If they can't work it out then scrap it and start over. We've touched on this in other discussions but in order for effective change to happen within the VA there has to be a culture change. There is a poisonous culture a muck in the VA system and until that's eradicated, nothing effective can happen in my book.

I say scrap the VA & start over but until things are fixed & running properly issue Medical credit cards so we can go get Proper care in the private sector.

Privatize it, outsource it, completely revamp VA, definitely give me CIVILIAN HEALTH CARE OPTIONS, VA MEDICAL CARE COMPLETE FAILURE!! I can personally give them good credit for Rehab services (Alcohol/Drug Treatment, Domiciliary/Homeless Vet programs are quite excellent).
As a Disabled Veteran through the VA, I am effectively forced to use only the VA system at this time. Due to the severe abuses by the masses concerning Pain Management/Pain medication alone, many of us veterans with legitimate and well documented diagnoses warranting pain medication have been either cut off or treated as dirty drug addicts :( Because of this issue, I personally have been forced to pay out of pocket in civilian sector for this treatment, which costs me over $600 month! That is $200 for a 10 minute office visit and close to $400 for a COMMON and GENERIC Pain medication from WalMart Pharmacy! Get insurance you say? Who the frak is going to issue me insurance with prior medical history, military related, of PTSD and the lovely diagnoses of Opiate Addiction (thank you for that one VA, I wasn't depressed enough already :( I apologize for responding with this on RP, which I have enjoyed because I feel like I'm a part of something honorable again, but this is not a unique story at all. I wish I could suck up this pain, but I've tried everything else and I'm miserable without some kind of opiate medication relief....and FYI, I just left Phoenix area and I concur, that VA system was so (apology for rare curse word on this great site) Phoenix VA system was FUCKED! First hand experience from me to you....want to know how bad? Ask me, I'll share my story. Doc Hill, honorably discharged wounded warrior and now Dirty filthy drug-addict per PHOENIX VA!!!!

Fix what we have. As the Surgeon General has stated "We must move from a healthcare system to a System of Health."

The VA Medical system should be privatized. So should many other federal programs (Post Office comes to mind immediately). Each day we find out that there are more and deeper SYSTEMIC problems... that means it's the entire system and not just isolated to a few locations. How can we expect to change an entire culture of corruption? (ok, now I'm thinking this last statement could apply to Congress as well!) I have to believe that privatization would be more cost effective in the long run AND provide better care to our Veterans.
End rant. Thanks for listening.

As much as I would love to say to scrap the VA as a whole, I cannot in good faith say that.

There are aspects of the system that work correctly, and aspects that don't.

As an example, the Education portion is pretty efficient.

The Health Care portion is "bogged down" though.

Were it up to me? The Health Card aspect makes "some" sense, but we still need to account for Disability Payments, etc.

Everyone wants to create insurance programs ie tricare, obamacare and Medicare. However, the problem with the whole healthcare system is a shortage of providers and all the insurance and government programs can't fix that. We must encourage more people to enter the medical profession, because the increased number of patients due to the baby boomers becoming seniors, then we complicate the whole thing by involving ourselves in a prolonged conflict with no way for the system to handle the increase in wounded veterans. I don't proport to know the answer, but a new insurance scheme won't fix it

Sorry if I am in the minority, but I work at the VA, the najority of the problems are in one area, it can and WILL be fixed