How the government handles health care
In its unbounded determination to make a new man of me the VA has decided to give me a free hearing aid. This may be related to my saying, "What?" a dozen or so times during yesterday's routine visit to my primary care doctor at the Akron VA Clinic.
If the VA succeeds in its quest it could cause problems. Jackie has often said she will not tolerate having a new man around the place. She claims to have had it up to her ears with men. While she didn't specifically exclude me from this statement I'm sure she meant to.
I'm hoping this hearing aid will not mean a compulsory yearly examination of my ears. They gave me an expensive pair of glasses, then insisted I have a check-up every 12 months. Oddly enough, my eyes have improved every year. During the most recent exam I mentioned that I spend the entire day working at a computer. They gave me a second pair of special glasses that make it easier but don't work anywhere else.
The VA gave me an expensive, deluxe model rollator so I would walk more and it would be easier. It's easier but I don't walk more. It's nice, though, to always have a seat with me and I like to play with the brakes. It needs brakes because you walk like a man of 20 and reach a high rate of speed.
I also get any prescription drug on the market for a nominal fee. If I don't have the nominal fee the VA gives them to me for free. When I got out of the hospital after a heart attack five years ago I was given a list of new prescriptions to take to a drug store. It set us back $375. From the VA it's $64.
Got a flu shot at the clinic yesterday. No charge. I was given five pages of lab test results to give to the Medicare doctor. No charge. I get my toenails trimmed every three months. No charge. The list of other benefits would fill pages and there is no limit to the number of procedures on one visit to the clinic.
Did somebody say the government doesn't know how to run a health care program?
posted by Dick Stodghill | 10/14/2009 10:24:00 AM
3 Comments:
Dick, 14 Oct 2009
Yes, I did.
For your sake and that of all the other veterans that have given so much to the rest of us, I hope the VA provides you with the best of care; you all earned it. I’m also a veteran but I didn’t sacrifice much of anything compared to the sacrifices you and millions of other veterans made.
While I was in the Navy I found myself in a Navy hospital, the US Naval Hospital at Great Lakes to be exact. The only way I was able to get out of that place was through the intervention of my Congressman, a long and sorry story not for here.
By the mid-1990s the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) was in sorry shape. For the most part I believe those problems have been remedied. I am glad the VA is providing you with topnotch healthcare; I wouldn’t want it any other way. But, just because the VA can provide good healthcare for veterans, does not mean the government can do likewise for an additional 250-million+ people.
I myself do not want the politicians (Democrats and/or Republicans) in Washington, or anywhere else for that matter, making decisions about my health care. I look at the US Postal Service (USPS) as a prime example of a failed government institution. If the politicians can’t run a post office properly, why should we want those same folks dictating our healthcare?
Take care and stay Healthy,
Chet
Chet, when you think about the millions of pieces of mail handled daily the post office does a better job than many private businesses.
I'd rather have the government running my health care than an insurance company out to make a profit. How often we hear stories of treatment or a procedure being denied by an insurance company.
I expect things will sort themselves out in time.
Post a Comment
<< Home