Comments on: Fix Military Health-Care First

By: Mike K

Mike K — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:53:53 +0000

SgtMom, I know what you mean. I once ran a sick call on active duty as an Air Force EM. I had been pulled out of medical school in 1961 when the Berlin Wall went up. There were two medical students in our reserve unit. I ran sick call and the other medical student ran the Flight Surgeon’s Office. The doctors all took off most of the time. It was good experience for me at the time, but maybe not so good for the folks on sick call.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:51:06 +0000

“The shear size of it”

sheer

By: Sgt. Mom

Sgt. Mom — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:40:49 +0000

Well … it’s a mixed bag, really – there are so many variables. I had great care, as a military member overseas – even when I was an OB-Gyn patient, and my daughter had very good care as a dependent-of-active duty. It’s a bit more problematical as a retiree on Tricare, and generally in pretty good health. Frankly, I go so far between appointments (at Brooke Army Medical Center, which is THE showplace for military medical care) that I tend to have a different primary care provider each time. So, it’s probably a good thing for me, that they tend to forget about me, altogether, in between appointments.
But when I was on active duty, I was usually seen at Air Force clinics, and sometimes by foreign-contract doctors. My one experience, while assigned to the Army and having to take my medical needs to the troop clinic at Yongsan AIG was so purely horrible, that eventually I preferred to take a two-hour bus ride to Osan AB to the Air Force clinic there. Before I chose to do that, I ran into about every dysfunctional medical practitioner imaginable, from doctors who could barely understand and speak English, to administrators who insisted that whatever your ailment, if you didn’t take it to the troop clinic- which was scheduled for only four hours a day – you were just SOL. Unless you were bleeding arterially, had compound fractures, an incipient heart attack or a temperature of over 105 – eh, you could just suck it up and drag your malingering a** to the troop clinic, thank you very much.

My idea of socialized medical hell is for us all to be condemned to go to something like the Yongson AIG troop clinic, now and forever, amen.

By: Michael Kennedy

Michael Kennedy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:45:03 +0000

ought we close down VA hospitals because they are run by the govt–socialized? The VA system, not the subject of the post but of your comment, is the most politicized health care system on earth. You may prefer to go to a VA hospital but you are in a minority of people who have access to private care. A friend of mine, a retired oncologist, goes to the VA because an old pal of his, an internist in Santa Barbara where they both live, is the VA internist. I have worked in VA hospitals and they are OK for vets with no insurance and, in wartime, can be a godsend for troops injured where the VA has some good rehab facilities. I have a number of family who are either active duty military or retired. The biggest problem the military has is the willingness of young doctors to spend years in the bureaucracy of the medical corps. I've been there as an enlisted man and as a medical officer. The military is great for trauma care; none better in the world. Their training is superb as they are one of the most sophisticated users of virtual reality on earth. Dependent care is something else. That may get better as Obama destroys private medicine. The military has gotten into trouble by taking some very questionable docs. Maybe that will be less of a problem as doctors flee the "public option." I have a bit of that here.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:53:18 +0000

Harry Angstrom,

Sorry to say this, Ms Love, but fixing military health care is a govt issue and can and of course should be fixed by the govt…

Well, yes, that was the entire point of my post. We should turn the military health care system into a test bed for all the methods that we want to apply to the civilian system.

Note that I said the military health care system, not the VA. They are two entirely separate systems. Of course, we can also test somethings in the VA system.

By: Beach_Bum_13

Beach_Bum_13 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:22:11 +0000

All three previous posters have made the usual civilian mistake of confusing the Military Medical system (which serves Active Duty members and dependents and retirees) with the VA system. The former is run by the Department of Defense, the latter by the Department of Veterans Affairs. They are two different systems with two different missions. Given the absolute ability of the DoD to tinker with the Military Medical system, the author’s point is spot on – if the government can’t get it right in the most tightly controlled environment possible, what hope is there for success on a truely national scale?

By: sol vason

sol vason — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:50:05 +0000

I am confused. There are many specific credible complaints about failures in the VA system and military medicine. Yet there seem to be an enormous number of people such as harry angstrom who are ready to vociferously defend the VA and the military health system and claim these 2 have quality so high that it is unmatched anywhere in the world.

So who are these defenders, why do they defend, and what proof do they have that allegations such as those made by Megan are a pile of horse-puckey?

By: Scotch Drinker

Scotch Drinker — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:43:51 +0000

I think the idea that military health care should be solved by the government is the entire point of the post. Because it’s a totally socialized system, the government should at least be able to get that right before worrying too much about “fixing” our health care system. Based on what I’ve heard about the VA, I have my doubts that the care there is particularly good.

Doing too many things at once is the sign of someone seriously inexperienced. There’s a fine line between doing more than 1 thing and doing too many things.

By: harry angstrom

harry angstrom — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Sorry to say this, Ms Love, but fixing military health care is a govt issue and can and of course should be fixed by the govt (Bush cut the heck out of VA funding and it was restored in part by Obama); but that ought not preclude doing more than one thing at a time. If VA hospitals are socialized, then notice that this is not what the Dems want in their health plan, and ought we close down VA hospitals because they are run by the govt–socialized?If yes, then why not end federally insured bank protection? All the vets I know used the VA hospitals in preference to private health plans, and they are happy with the service the deserve and do get.
I qualify for such care if wanted but use coverage from my wife’s plan instead, simply because parking remains a problem at the closest VA hospital in my area.

One of the odd things about Obama is that he seems able to deal with any number of things at
pretty much the same time rather than doing but one and waiting till that is done, fixed, finalized, before moving on to another concern.