Socialist Progressives
Related: About this forumThe drive to privatize US veterans’ health care
The drive to privatize US veterans health care
2 June 2014
There is a largely hidden and deeply reactionary political agenda behind the current furor over the crisis in the US Department of Veterans Affairs health care system. On Friday, President Barack Obama responded to mounting demands from Democratic as well as Republican lawmakers and announced the resignation of VA Director Gen. Eric Shinseki (retired), promising reform of the system.
The so-called reform being prepared, however, represents a further attack on veterans and a precedent for laying siege to other government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The scandal at the VA over long wait times for appointments, falsified records and related deaths of veterans has not prompted calls for any substantial increase in funding for the beleaguered department, but renewed calls for its privatization.
The hypocritical claims of the president and members of Congress that their proposals to deal with the crisis at the VA are motivated by genuine concern for veterans merit only contempt. The same politicians who bemoan the poor treatment of veterans are responsible for the human and social disaster that is reflected in the explosive growth of the patient load at VA health facilities. They are seeking to exploit the current scandal to allow for-profit insurance companies and health care firms to gain access to a lucrative market at the expense of veterans health care ...
More here - http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/06/02/pers-j02.html
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)at the Vets expense.
TBF
(32,055 posts)and I swear they are putting up urgent cares on every corner. They must see profit with Obamacare enacted ... and my guess is that they intend to push everything into Obamacare. Which is a bad plan. I'd rather turn Tricare into a national single payer system for all.
DJ13
(23,671 posts)is an equal loss in money that could be spent directly on veterans.
TBF
(32,055 posts)cut the funding to programs in order to give the impression they are not working & then move in for the kill (privatization). Once the private companies take over they then milk the taxpayers. No clue why folks put up with this ...
TiredOfNo
(52 posts)It's the same with SS, MC, MA, and other great programs like the USPS. The Republican ALEC agenda states this clearly. Cut, starve and kill.
They're also doing the same thing to our economy. Give the rich tax breaks (all the while saying they "create jobs," then the rich send the money to off-shore accounts or make foreign investments, close factories, destroy jobs and then the Republicans complain that the economy is not good. Then they suggest, as a solution, that corporations should not be taxed.
It's all for one purpose, to transfer all the wealth to the rich.
djean111
(14,255 posts)The people with actual power to purchase the laws want to privatize the VA, then ooze on over and take Medicare.
I have watched my father get excellent care from his VA hospital for decades - they not only treat his disability but also provide glasses, dental work etc. I think he is fortunate that he was an early Vietnam Vet and got into the system in the 80s. I think the quality of the hospitals may also vary state by state (as they would with private so I see no reason to privatize based upon that).