lawgator1
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This is not what you think it will be.
Politics
First, I do not think Obama is handling this well, at all. As stated yesterday (I heard it on the radio, so do not know who it was exactly, just a Democrat in Congress), Obama's lack of sense of urgency is really poor here. He needs to be much more on top of this.
Second, I have mixed feelings about firing Shinseki. On the one hand, it seems to me that he has lost the confidence of the vets and of Congress. I don't think he can ever recover that. On the other hand, I think that would just largely just be symbolic, and would not actually change anything, or get to the root of the problem, in the every day operation of VA hospitals. My suspicion is that he will have to go at some point in the not too distant future -- I just don't want anyone to be deluded into thinking that it solves anything.
Reality
I am not a vet, and so I tend to view this through the prism of going to the doctor or the hospital, myself. And so it doesn't translate perfectly.
I guess my question is whether the problem is that there are simply not enough doctors, or, are the doctors they have bad and lazy, or is there some sort of bureaucratic hassle thrust upon them that makes them inefficient?
Now (and to return to politics for a moment), it kind of pisses me off to see some of the usual partisan nonsense that wants to turn this into another Obamacare attack. Ok, ok, we get it, but hey for now can we please concentrate on this agency and fix this, first?
And back to reality, if its a shortage of doctors, the answer is to hire more doctors. That means more spending, but if that is what we have to do, then that is what we have to do.
If its that the ones we have suck, then that probably means spending more money to get good ones. That's just a fact.
If its bureaucratic nonsense, then let's figure out a way to free the doctors up from that so they have more time for patient care. I don't think the solution is some sort of policy or regulation on number of visits, etc. That just adds to bureaucracy and makes it worse.
I think what we need to do is to get a sense of every day life at a VA facility. What do they (the health care providers) spend their time doing? If its just that there are too few of them, then that needs to be fixed.
Its probably some combination of the two. I really hope, for the sake of the veterans and especially their confidence in the program, that politicians of every party and stripe, can just agree for a moment to sit down, roll up their sleeves, and really try to understand how it is working at the every day level. No photo ops. No speeches. Just find out from people doing it what the problem is.
Politics
First, I do not think Obama is handling this well, at all. As stated yesterday (I heard it on the radio, so do not know who it was exactly, just a Democrat in Congress), Obama's lack of sense of urgency is really poor here. He needs to be much more on top of this.
Second, I have mixed feelings about firing Shinseki. On the one hand, it seems to me that he has lost the confidence of the vets and of Congress. I don't think he can ever recover that. On the other hand, I think that would just largely just be symbolic, and would not actually change anything, or get to the root of the problem, in the every day operation of VA hospitals. My suspicion is that he will have to go at some point in the not too distant future -- I just don't want anyone to be deluded into thinking that it solves anything.
Reality
I am not a vet, and so I tend to view this through the prism of going to the doctor or the hospital, myself. And so it doesn't translate perfectly.
I guess my question is whether the problem is that there are simply not enough doctors, or, are the doctors they have bad and lazy, or is there some sort of bureaucratic hassle thrust upon them that makes them inefficient?
Now (and to return to politics for a moment), it kind of pisses me off to see some of the usual partisan nonsense that wants to turn this into another Obamacare attack. Ok, ok, we get it, but hey for now can we please concentrate on this agency and fix this, first?
And back to reality, if its a shortage of doctors, the answer is to hire more doctors. That means more spending, but if that is what we have to do, then that is what we have to do.
If its that the ones we have suck, then that probably means spending more money to get good ones. That's just a fact.
If its bureaucratic nonsense, then let's figure out a way to free the doctors up from that so they have more time for patient care. I don't think the solution is some sort of policy or regulation on number of visits, etc. That just adds to bureaucracy and makes it worse.
I think what we need to do is to get a sense of every day life at a VA facility. What do they (the health care providers) spend their time doing? If its just that there are too few of them, then that needs to be fixed.
Its probably some combination of the two. I really hope, for the sake of the veterans and especially their confidence in the program, that politicians of every party and stripe, can just agree for a moment to sit down, roll up their sleeves, and really try to understand how it is working at the every day level. No photo ops. No speeches. Just find out from people doing it what the problem is.