Veterans Health Care System Was Broken, and No One Was Immune

While the Country served either totally ignored many issues or just plain denied many of them even existed or were indeed fact, the Shinseki administration, with help from the Obama Executive Administration and it's Cabinet started addressing those of our past decades and wars from while attending to two more long wars and the Veterans from, the only Government Branch doing so!!

The delays were driven by an explosion in veterans seeking care. Outpatient visits to the VA system rose from 46.5 million in 2002 to 83.6 million a decade later. The number of veterans receiving mental health treatment grew from less than 900,000 in 2006 to more than 1.2 million in 2012.

The problem was exacerbated by the lack of physicians and other medical personnel.

Fact: "If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too — not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

Togus allegations highlight breadth of problems at VA

It shouldn’t be a surprise that officials at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Maine may have manipulated treatment information. The same has happened, to differing degrees, at VA facilities throughout the country, and Togus, as the Maine hospital is known, is under the same pressures, with the same rising demand for health care amid the same staffing shortages.

The allegations are a further reminder of how widespread the problems at VA hospitals were before the scandal was unearthed earlier this year. More than simply the fault of a few bad apples, the shortcomings at the VA were the result of a systemwide failure that was diverting care, and would have needed fixing even if hospitals had not started fudging the numbers. read more>>>

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

VA to Accept Proposals for New Scheduling System

November 21, 2014 - As part of The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) ongoing effort to improve Veterans’ access to healthcare, VA announced it has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new Medical Appointment Scheduling System (MASS).. The new MASS technology will help improve access to care for Veterans by providing schedulers with state-of-the-art, management-based scheduling software.

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The new system will replace a legacy scheduling system that has been in use at VA since 1985. VA’s acquisition approach for the new scheduling solution remains full and open; any qualified vendor may compete. Potential bidders are not required to have prior experience working with VA. Proposals are due on January 9, 2015. read more>>>

Facts: Matthew Hoh {former Marine and foreign service officer in Afghanistan}: "We spend a trillion dollars a year on national security in this country."
"And when you add up to the Department of Defense, Department of State, CIA, Veterans Affairs, interest on debt, the number that strikes me the most about how much we're committed financially to these wars and to our current policies is we have spent $250 billion already just on interest payments on the debt we've incurred for the Iraq and Afghan wars." 26 September 2014

Bob Herbert "Losing Our Way" : "And then the staggering costs of these wars, which are borne by the taxpayers. I mean, one of the things that was insane was that, as we're at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration cut taxes. This has never been done in American history. The idea of cutting taxes while you're going to war is just crazy. I mean, it's madness." Bill 'Moyers and Company': Restoring an America That Has Lost its Way 10 Oct. 2014

Chris Hayes MSNBC: "If you can run a deficit to go to war, you can run a deficit to take care of the people who fought it" In response to Republican opposition to expanding Veterans' benefits on fiscal grounds