I get my care at the VA so it's wild the see these numbers in visual, Stephen. Even crazier, we've had cuts since Barrack Obama signed the Choice Act in 2014 (had a 3 year sunset clause) and then re-affirmed in Donald Trump's signature of the Mission Act 2018. (Fuck, the only vets who get covered since 2004 are those with 20% service connected disability. Not every vet gets care and that's criminal.) In both cases, more vets were dis-enrolled as departments streamlined by sending cash to private health insurance pirates TriWest Healthcare and Health Net to take care of us. Care was worse by 2017, check out reports by ex-Senator Tester out of Montana, but the lucrative contracts kept TriWest and Health Net rolling.
Point is, this is the hustle of our lives: "privatization" in damn near every sector of governance has always been a lucrative contract to the friends of liberals AND republicans in the private sector. TriWest, for example, is based in Arizona, it's president was David J. McInTyre who just happened to be on John McCain's staff back in the day. And Obama took, what, 3x the amount of the health insurance pirates over McCain in 2008 election?
Even though we're still the Honda Accord of American healthcare, we're getting less as vets but ya'll are paying more to these slush puppies. MAGA Red or MAGA Blue, it's all the same shakedown.
Thanks for sharing, Alexander. The data show more and more funding for veterans care, but reports and testimony like yours suggest less and less care is actually being delivered. Spending more and getting less is a theme I've observed plenty in my research of Pentagon contracting, so I'm not surprised (but no less horrified) to hear your observations about the privatization of care.
I badly want VA care to function well for moral reasons, but also because I want it to be an example folks can point to for how publicly funded health coverage could/should work.
Thanks again for sharing your insights & for supporting Polygraph. Means a lot.
I get my care at the VA so it's wild the see these numbers in visual, Stephen. Even crazier, we've had cuts since Barrack Obama signed the Choice Act in 2014 (had a 3 year sunset clause) and then re-affirmed in Donald Trump's signature of the Mission Act 2018. (Fuck, the only vets who get covered since 2004 are those with 20% service connected disability. Not every vet gets care and that's criminal.) In both cases, more vets were dis-enrolled as departments streamlined by sending cash to private health insurance pirates TriWest Healthcare and Health Net to take care of us. Care was worse by 2017, check out reports by ex-Senator Tester out of Montana, but the lucrative contracts kept TriWest and Health Net rolling.
Point is, this is the hustle of our lives: "privatization" in damn near every sector of governance has always been a lucrative contract to the friends of liberals AND republicans in the private sector. TriWest, for example, is based in Arizona, it's president was David J. McInTyre who just happened to be on John McCain's staff back in the day. And Obama took, what, 3x the amount of the health insurance pirates over McCain in 2008 election?
Even though we're still the Honda Accord of American healthcare, we're getting less as vets but ya'll are paying more to these slush puppies. MAGA Red or MAGA Blue, it's all the same shakedown.
Thanks for sharing, Alexander. The data show more and more funding for veterans care, but reports and testimony like yours suggest less and less care is actually being delivered. Spending more and getting less is a theme I've observed plenty in my research of Pentagon contracting, so I'm not surprised (but no less horrified) to hear your observations about the privatization of care.
I badly want VA care to function well for moral reasons, but also because I want it to be an example folks can point to for how publicly funded health coverage could/should work.
Thanks again for sharing your insights & for supporting Polygraph. Means a lot.