VA medical personnel are immune from lawsuits

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Veterans Administration medical personnel. The doctors who are responsible are

immune from lawsuits under federal.....

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/786449/posts

 

Outside view: When Johnny comes home

http://www.upi.com/index.cfm ^ | 11/10/2002 | Morgan Strong

 

 

Posted on 11/10/2002 6:37:54 PM PST by chasio649

 

 

NEWARK, N.J., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Every year on Nov. 11 we spend a little part of

the day in remembrance of our veterans, before we head to the mall for the

sales. We celebrate the sacrifices of those who died in one of our wars, and

those who did their duty and came home. Maybe the veterans will put on their old

uniforms, or maybe a hat from one of the veterans groups, and parade down Main

Street behind the flag. Nov. 11 is their day, and it is their only day.

 

We are inching toward another war, and we are going to have more veterans, and

we are going to have more wounded. The wounded are going to need care, maybe a

lifetime of care. We give them the Veterans Administration. Let us not forget

the Veterans Administration on this day, because a lot of veterans wounded or

injured in the military end up dependent on them for their health care.

 

Nobody really knows much about the Veterans Administration; it seems to go on in

obscurity. There is never much attention paid to its workings, or is there ever

much criticism of the VA. There is no great scrutiny because every politician in

the country is loath to raise the ire of the veterans groups.

 

The veterans groups will rally to the defense of the VA because it is in their

interest to do so. They will protect the Veteran's Administration when it is

clearly in the interests of the veterans that the VA needs reform. In truth, the

VA is a national scandal, but no one has the stomach to say so. When our

veterans come back from our next adventure they will be thrown into the terrible

chaos of a hopelessly mismanaged federal agency.

 

The Department of Veterans' Affairs, with a budget this year of $50 billion, is

the second largest Cabinet-level department behind only the Department of

Defense. It operates 171 medical centers, with 80,000 beds, 362 outpatient

clinics, 128 nursing homes, and 35 domiciliary facilities. It employs nearly

300,000 people, including 7,000 who receive salaries of over $100,000 a year.

There are 5,000 well paid doctors who no longer practice medicine, but work as

administrators. There are over 400 lawyers.

 

A disabled veteran will wait, on average, three months for an appointment to see

a general practitioner at a VA facility. If that doctor recommends a specialist,

the veteran will wait an additional three months for that appointment. If

surgery is required, the veteran may wait another three months.

 

On average, it takes 200 days for a veteran to obtain a preliminary ruling from

the VA for a service-related injury claim. It may take up to two years for the

final ruling.

 

The majority of veterans -- two-thirds -- who use the VA health care facilities

have incomes of less than $20,000 a year.

 

The American taxpayer, in the years 1983 through 1992, paid over $200 million in

damages for medical malpractice claims against Veterans Administration medical

personnel. The doctors who are responsible are immune from lawsuits under

federal law.

 

There is at least one VA hospital in each state and in the District of Columbia

and Puerto Rico -- huge buildings with hundreds of beds. Most of the beds in

these facilities are unused. They are building new VA medical centers in Palm

Beach, Fla., Honolulu, Anchorage, and Fairfield, Calif. They do not need these

facilities, but they build them any because the political structure does not

want to offend the powerful veterans groups.

 

There have been attempts to close underutilized VA medical centers but the

veterans groups resist, even though the closures would mean better service for

veterans. Chicago has four VA medical centers, each hospital uses only

one-quarter of its available space. There was a plan proposed to close two of

the hospitals and combine the services in the remaining two. The government

would have saved a billion dollars a year. The idea created panic within the

veterans groups, who regarded the proposed closings as an intrusion on their

turf. They staged rallies and marches and intimidated the politicians. The idea

was dropped.

 

There are 28 million veterans in this country. Eight percent, or 2 million, use

the VA health care system. More than half of those were not wounded in combat,

but qualify for free medical because they have incomes that fall under the

federal poverty level.

 

Many dedicated employees of the VA do wonderful work. But they are faced with an

overwhelming burden of red tape. In fact, the very term " red tape " originated

with the VA following the Civil War.

 

There are miles of arcane regulations governing every step of VA medical care

and what determines eligibility for care; 97 pages of Title 38, part 4 of the

code of federal regulations. And there are thousands of internal VA rules and

regulations making it extraordinarily difficult to run a health care system.

 

The problem is the veterans are given too much, which in the end is too little.

The politicians automatically give the VA more money each fiscal year because

they are afraid to raise questions as to how the money is spent, or even to

examine the VA health care system to see if it works. The veterans groups are

more interested in maintaining control over the VA then they are in controlling

the VA.

 

When Johnny comes marching home this next time he or she is going to be sent to

the VA health care system to tend their wounds. They had better be prepared for

a little let down. And somebody should tell the president that we know there is

something he is not telling him or her, or us.

 

-0-

 

Morgan Strong is a former U.S. diplomat and adviser to the CBS news program " 60

Minutes. " He also is a former Marine wounded in Vietnam.

 

 

 

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TOPICS: Editorial

KEYWORDS: VA

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Can you say socialised medicine?

 

1 posted on 11/10/2002 6:37:54 PM PST by chasio649

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chasio649

Why does medical care for veterans have to be provided at special VA hospitals?

Why couldn't the system of VA hospitals be abolished and give veterans vouchers

for health insurance?