Veterans Hospitals

I've said from the beginning that our vets deserve better. The VA is a joke, has been a joke for a long time. Veterinary hospitals treat their animals better than vets get treated at the VA. Finally, the Walter Reed scandal is bringing this to light. Yes, it's an Army hospital and there's a difference, but truly, there isn't. I've been in both, military hospitals and VA hospitals, and if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Of course, it'll be blamed on President Bush, but let's get real. This started back in the 70's when Jimmy Carter gutted the funding for the Veterans Administration. That's when the VA and military hospitals started heading toward the crapper. Granted it wasn't exactly great anyway, being one step short of socialized medicine, but if you want to see government-run healthcare, look no further than a military hospital or a VA. Y'all sure you want those idiots telling you when you can and cannot have an x-ray?

Since I'm on this subject though, for once I agree with Carl Levin. His recently emailed his constituents about the scandal (I've sent him plenty on various subjects so I'm sure I'm on a list somewhere)

In light of your previous correspondence, I thought you would be interested
in knowing about the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, which I
chaired, on conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on March 6,
2007.As you may know, a recent series of Washington Post articles described
deplorable the living conditions, the failure to account for, and the
bungled administrative processing of injured troops in an outpatient status
at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. New reports indicate that these
problems are not confined to Walter Reed. Unfortunately, they exist
elsewhere in the military and VA medical systems. Our nation has a moral
obligation to provide quality health care to the men and women who put on
our nation’s uniform and are injured fighting out nation’s wars. This
obligation extends from the point of injury, through the evacuation from the
battlefield, to first class medical facilities in the United States, and
ends only when the wounds are healed. Where the wounds cannot be
healed, we have an obligation to provide quality care throughout the lifetime of
the veteran.

So, you have to give him props for that anyway. Even if he's a damn socialist.

But you heard it here...you want to see health care under a socialized system, just go to a VA or military hospital. Not that current hospitals are models of efficiency mind you, but they still tend to be head and shoulders above their governmental-run counterparts.