Ask a veteran about government health insurance and hear them

Wow, if any of this was new instead of just news, it would really be terrible. What makes it worse is none of this is new. Go back to before Obama and find the backlog of claims over 900,000 and less working for the VA than there were after the Gulf War. It was so bad back then Veterans for Common Sense had to file a lawsuit. Go back to the 90's when Vietnam veterans were standing in line only to be told they couldn't prove the exact moment PTSD hit them. Go back to the 80's when they were just learning what PTSD was. Go back to the 70's when they had to fight to force the VA to take care of them. Go back to when older veterans had to fight.

The truth is for all that has happened for veterans they fought for all of it and for what has not happened, congress never fixed it right. But then again you'd also have to be aware of the fact one state is worse than others when it comes to taking care of veterans and it has nothing to do with Obamacare. It has everything to do with only caring when it just matters to you. Care all the time then things can change.

Ask a veteran about government health insurance: Column
Pete Hegseth
December 21, 2013

The way benefits are handled by the Department of Veterans Affairs can tell us something about government health care.

Charles Skipper is an American hero. A retired member of the United States Army, he served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. A battlefield injury cut short his tour of duty — a tour which earned him two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a lifelong battle with post traumatic stress disorder.

But you wouldn't know that he's a hero by the way he's been treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Six years after filing a disability claim, he's still waiting for resolution. Those years have been filled with paperwork, unfulfilled promises and a bureaucratic mess that makes Charles fight back tears.

Now he has a warning for America: "If you really want to know what Obamacare is going to be like, just look at the VA system."

His experience is not unique. Too many of America's veterans have suffered at the hands of the VA, where the federal government is both the middleman and the manager of their care. Their experiences thus provide a unique window into Obamacare's future.

That future is bleak. VA's biggest problem is its inability to process disability claims payments. VA has roughly 700,000 pending claims in the system right now. Of that number, some 400,000 have been backlogged for over 125 days. Some, like Charles, have been backlogged for over two years.
read more here

So here are the links to show what was missing.

Ordered to stop helping veterans with claims

NPR Morning Edition, February 7, 2008 · A document from the Department of Veterans Affairs contradicts an assertion made by the Army surgeon general that his office did not tell VA officials to stop helping injured soldiers with their military disability paperwork at a New York Army post.

The paperwork can help determine health care and disability benefits for wounded soldiers.

Last week, NPR first described a meeting last March between an Army team from Washington and VA officials at Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York. NPR reported that Army representatives told the VA not to review the narrative summaries of soldiers' injuries, and that the VA complied with the Army's request.

The day the NPR story aired, Army Surgeon General Eric B. Schoomaker denied parts of the report. Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), who represents the Fort Drum area, told North Country Public Radio, that "The Surgeon General of the Army told me very flatly that it was not the Army that told the VA to stop this help."

Now, NPR has obtained a four-page VA document that contradicts the surgeon general's statement to McHugh. It was written by one of the VA officials at Fort Drum on March 31, the day after the meeting. The document says Col. Becky Baker of the Army Surgeon General's office told the VA to discontinue counseling soldiers on the appropriateness of Defense Department ratings because "there exists a conflict of interest."

VA claim backlog at 816,211 but IT cut back? WTF
Vets' groups urge IT budget boost for benefits processing
By Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com
February 13, 2008

Veterans' services organizations have urged Congress to provide a sharp increase in the information technology budget of the agency that handles their compensation and pension claims.

The fiscal 2009 IT budget request for the Veterans Benefits Administration is about 18 percent less than the fiscal 2008 proposal. The overall IT budget for the Veterans Affairs Department, VBA's parent agency, jumped 18 percent in President Bush's latest request.

VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Baker said VBA must have the funds necessary to upgrade its IT infrastructure to handle the backlog and a growing caseload. Anything short of an increase is "a recipe for failure," he added.

Carl Blake, national legislative director for the Paralyzed Veterans of America, said VBA needed $121 million in its fiscal 2009 budget for its information technology. According to VA budget documents, VBA requested an IT budget of $109.6 million for its compensation and benefits programs, down $23.8 million from $133.4 million in 2008. VA requested an overall 2009 IT budget of $2.53 billion in 2009, up from $2.15 billion in fiscal 2008, with the largest portion earmarked for the Veterans Health Administration.

Veterans Wait 4 Years for VA Claim Appeal
Alabama State Veterans Director Says Veterans Wait 4 Years for VA Claim Appeal
Jane McCardle
Wiregrass Aviator
Apr 24, 2008

April 22, 2008 - Enterprise, AL -- Area veterans took advantage of an opportunity to ask questions about the benefits claims process from a state Veterans Affairs officer during a recent meeting.

Richardo (Rick) F. Randle, director of Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs, was the guest speaker at the April 19 meeting of the Lower Alabama Veterans Alliance Saturday at Ryan’s in Enterprise.

Randle told the filled-to- capacity crowd of LAVA members and guests that staffing is a critical issue with the department, and until more resources become available, staffing will remain a problem.

“We are doing the best we can with the resources available to us,” said Randle.

“Since 2006, the number of claims has grown 15 percent. The amount of time it takes to make decisions on disability claims is two to three year. On an average, it takes four years to get an appeals decision.”

There are more if you want them but I think you now know a lot more than the article told you.