McCain's Plan to Privatise Veterans' Health Care

[babylonsister]

US: McCain's Plan to Privatise Veterans' Health Care
Analysis by Aaron Glantz*


SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 21 (IPS) - If John McCain is elected the next U.S. president, wounded veterans could be in for a world of hurt.

snip//

"Ideologues like John McCain and George Bush hate the fact that the VA exists," Sullivan told IPS, noting that the Republican candidate also wants to partially privatise social security and offer private school vouchers to students currently enrolled in public schools.

"They hate the fact that there's a functional example out there of the government providing better care at a lower cost than the private sector," Sullivan said. "The problem that the VA faces now is that the Bush administration failed to hire enough doctors and disability claims adjusters when they chose to go to war with Iraq. If these doctors had been hired, the VA would be an example of the government doing good work. Bush and McCain don't want the public to see that."

McCain has also never spelled out what he means by a "combat injury", leading many veterans worried they could be left out in the cold.

"If I'm driving a Humvee in Iraq and a roadside bomb explodes and I veer off the road and crush my arm and end up losing it and needing a prosthetic, is that a combat wound according to Sen. McCain?" asked retired Air Force Colonel Richard Klass, the president of the Council for a Livable World's VETPAC, which has endorsed Obama.

Official Pentagon policy calls such an incident a non-combat injury. Technically speaking, the only soldiers "wounded" in combat are those hit by direct enemy fire. As of Aug. 5, Department of Defence statistics showed 32,799 U.S. soldiers had been "wounded" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another 10,685 had sustained "non-hostile" injuries which required a medical evacuation, while 29,881 were classified as "ill" enough to be airlifted out of the war-zone.

more...

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43626

[FreakinDJ]

1. My Dad lives at the VA home now

Widowed - and 92 years old, it is comfortable for him to be around some of the people he fought with during WWII.

But it is very distressing what is going on there

1. The State of California pays more money to feed prisoners in the prison then the pay to feed the veterans - ( Privatized )

2. They have closed the clinic/hospital at the facility and now "With special permission" send the veterans over to the local hospital in the next town.( - Privatized - ) My father would have died had we waited on VA for treatment so we signed him up for Medical under my uncle's address and got him treated for a kidney infection.

3. The bureaucrats are now leasing out sections of the VA facility to private parties, who then in turn don't allow the veterans to use the facility ( - Privatized - )

[Thrill]

2. Why does McCain hate vets?

.

[babylonsister]

3. I don't know, but I'm glad many of them are seeing him for who he

really is.