VA expects to have more medical-care funding than it can spend for the fifth year in

[BMT (RIP)]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/27/va-expects-to-have-more-medical-care-funding-than-it-can-spend-for-fifth-year/

BMT

[Sacamuelas]

Money isnt the problem per say. The issue is the unnecessary red tape etc and recruiting quality doctors, nurses and other medical professionals that want to work in socialized medicine and put up with the BS and red tape.

And therein lies the problem.... red tape and BS are part of the problem. Truly "Good" doctors have to follow the path below:

1- give four years of moderate sacrifice applying themselves academically to a MUCH higher standard than the average college student while incurring 30-100k in debt
2- spend four more years of COMPLETE sacrifice while attending medical school and incurring 100-200k of debt in the process
3- spend another 3-7 years after graduating as a Doctor to be a resident making significantly less money than another doctor in their chosen specialty


then after excelling over those 11-15 years of their young life.... this medical stud who has always excelled/competed/achieved the highest level in all his/her academic pursuits must decide to go work for asshat bureaucrats and gov healthcare administrators for significantly less pay, less control, less professional prestige, and lack of any possibility for significant future increases in compensation.


IMO, it is obvious why a large percentage of the "socialized medicine (ex. VA) " doctors, dentists, other specialists are considered to be in the lower third of their respective professions and/or have other significant personal issues that affect their professional abilities (drinking/drugs/burnout/end of career).

Before the defensive posts begin by those in gov healthcare that frequent this site..... I didn't say ALL. I know and have experience with MANY good healthcare professionals in the military. As a matter of personal experience, most of the active duty guys/gals were squared away. I've seen a few good ones in the VA system too.

IMO, the non doctoral professionals (nurses, PT, OT, hyg., etc) were of equal quality to the civilian world with the one caveat that bad apples were harder to get rid of in the VA/gov system. The doctor/dentist quality levels are where I seem to see a significant difference in candidates between VA/gov and civilian practice.

:munchin

[The Reaper]

I have had four VA primary care providers.

None were US born, none were native English speakers, and none were licensed to practice outside the VA.

They couldn't even write simple scripts in NC.

TR