On Memorial Day, besides celebrating the unofficial start of Summer
vacation, Americans are supposed to remember the ultimate sacrifice made
by the men and women that served in the nation’s armed services. What
is often overlooked is the sacrifice made by those who served their
country, survived, and were fortunate to make it back home to what is
increasingly an ungrateful Republican Party. Republicans, by the way,
that are Hell-bent and duty-bound to Israel to send more Americans to
fight and die in the Middle East according to a twisted ideology that
there is never a time America should be at peace.
When George W. Bush committed crimes to take America
into an unnecessary war of aggression against a Muslim nation at
Israel’s behest, any opposition to putting America’s brave soldiers in
harm’s way was condemned as “not supporting the troops.” What has been
an increasing revelation since the start of the Iraq War was that
Republican support for the troops comes to a screeching halt the second
service men and women are mustered out of the military. Since Barack
Obama has been in office, Republicans have predictably blocked each and
every Democratic attempt to increase funding for Veteran’s services
whether it is better access to healthcare or providing assistance to
find living-wage jobs.
In the 2012 general election, Republican
presidential candidate Willard Romney floated an idea favored by the
Koch brothers of giving America’s Veterans a limited dollar amount
coupon to get healthcare privately they received for free through the
Veterans Administration. Now, another Republican, Jeb Bush, is the first
GOP presidential candidate thus far to propose that the best way to
show appreciation to America’s Veterans is the Koch brothers’ plan to
privatize the VA
and issue a set dollar-amount coupon to be redeemed at private
hospitals, private doctors’ offices, or health insurance carriers.
Bush said, “I know it has a pejorative for some, but
I’m all in on the voucher thing … empowering people with the equivalent
of a voucher that gives you the same economic benefit of receiving care
inside of a clinic or a hospital.” Like all Republicans, Jeb Bush is a
rank liar and obviously indebted to serving the interests of the Koch
brothers. This is not Bush’s first foray into the coupon-care
proposition for Veterans, one that began back in February at the
direction of the
Koch-funded group, Concerned Veterans for America.
The Koch group began seriously
pushing
its Republican lackeys to create a “premium-support private insurance
option” for Veterans healthcare services when drastically underfunded VA
hospital could not provide timely services to Veterans. The
privatization scam amounts to a yearly-issued, and set amount, coupon to
purchase healthcare services at a private hospital or doctor’s office,
or use as a discount card to purchase a private insurance policy.
There are two specific reasons Republicans and the
Kochs want to issue what amounts to a discount coupon to Veterans to use
for healthcare. One is because the Kochs see a prime opportunity to
make more money from the nation’s Veterans, and two; it is an easy means
of eliminating part of the federal government they hate with religious
conviction. It is noteworthy that the cost-effective, highly-successful,
and wildly popular Veterans healthcare system is the only completely
socialized part of the federal government and the Koch-Republicans want
it eliminated immediately. That they deprive Veterans of quality
healthcare is a value-added bonus only Republicans that hate troops once
they are finished serving can celebrate.
While Republicans envision punishing over 8 million
veterans enrolled to receive a wide range of services through the VA
with a coupon and higher out-of-pocket expenses, the Kochs see potential
profits from privateers. Privatization means corporations will profit
from the annual “89.7 million outpatient visits” and over “236,000
health care appointments per day” of Veterans at no charge because they
served their country and survived.
The Koch goal, like all GOP
privatization scams is leaving over 8 million veterans,
tens-of-thousands with combat-related injuries, without coverage or
services; it is the how the GOP supports the troops after they send them
to fight unnecessary wars of aggression.
Private hospitals, community clinics, and private
doctors cannot match Veterans health centers’ provided services because
they are not uniquely equipped to deal with specialized care for
combat-related injuries like amputations, psychological disorders, and
traumatic brain injuries. However, Republicans or the Kochs are not the
least bit concerned with offering care to Veterans. Not when they can
provide a coupon for Koch profit and privatization for Koch’s
libertarian ideology; Veteran’s health and welfare has never entered
into the equation. The Veteran’s coupon scam is sponsored and heavily
promoted by the “special interest Koch lobby” Concerned
Veterans For (Koch’s) America that betrays its ‘concern’ for America’s
Veterans by pushing privatization. Privatization that real Veteran’s
advocacy groups such as AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed
Veterans of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars are all adamantly
opposed to because they believe Veteran’s deserve more than being
subjected to a pathetic healthcare coupon scam.
Veterans, and the groups they belong to, understand
that sending more than 8 million of America’s Veterans, many of them
older and sicker than most Americans, particularly those requiring
highly-specialized care for rare and complex health problems to private
insurers, private doctors, and private pharmaceutical companies is an
abomination. They know what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office
concluded was that handing out discount coupons for Veterans’ healthcare
will create certain chaos and de facto healthcare rationing on a grand
scale. In fact, the CBO gave the same
assessment
to privatizing Veteran’s healthcare as they did Paul Ryan’s scam of
transforming Medicare into a discount coupon. Privatizing the VA with a
coupon, like a coupon for Medicare, will do nothing but create a “
dramatic shift of health care costs onto patients.”
Apparently America’s Veterans have not yet paid enough through their
service to America so the Koch-Republican plan is making them pay more
for the rest of their lives; another way Republicans support the troops.
According to a Rand Corporation
explanation in 2012 of how, “
‘Socialized’ or Not, We Can Learn from the VA,” the Veterans health care system “
delivers
care as good or better than its private sector counterparts; all while
doing a much better job of controlling costs for American taxpayers.” The Rand study revealed that the Veteran’s health care system delivered a consistently higher-quality of care than “
the national sample of private hospitals and doctors on all measures except acute care”
in which each sample was comparable. In every other aspect the Veterans
received better care on all counts including screenings, diagnosis,
treatment, and access to physicians and services on follow up.
Among chronic care patients of which especially
older and disabled Veterans make up a larger share than in the private
sector, the Rand study reported that VA patients received over 70
percent of recommended care compared with under 60 percent in the
national sample. The difference was substantially greater with
preventive care where VA patients received 65 percent of recommended
care compared to patients in the private national sample receiving
preventive care less than 45 percent of the time. Privatization means
less care all the way around for higher costs to taxpayers and Veterans
that the Koch-Republicans pant to enact and the Republican candidates
for president will be pushing leading up to the 2016 general election
regardless the opposition from those it will impact most; America’s
Veterans.
The GOP and their money machine portrays a coupon
for Veterans the same way they portray a coupon for Medicare; a major
cost saving measure that provides incredibly better service. However, as
far as cost savings, the socialized Veteran’s healthcare system has
always outperformed the private sector by a wide margin. The CBO
calculated that after adjusting for changing cases as younger veterans
have, and are, returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and require
healthcare services, the VA’s average health care cost per enrollee
grew by about 1.7% from 1999 to 2005; an annual growth rate of 0.3%.
During the same six year period, Medicare’s per capita costs grew by
29.4 % or an annual growth rate of 4.4 %. However, in the private
insurance market during that time premiums for family coverage jumped by
more than 70% according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Republicans’ call for privatizing the VA means
substandard care, more expense, and higher costs to Veterans who fought
Republican wars. President Obama and Democrats have attempted to
increase funding for Veterans, but Republicans blocked any increase that
could improve the Veteran’s health system and make it even more
successful and popular than it already is. Republicans and the Kochs
want Veterans healthcare services slashed through privatization and make
the Veterans bear the brunt of the expense. It may be a day to remember
those that made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country, but
it looks as if Republicans intend on making those who fought and
survived continue making sacrifices for the rest of their lives or until
the next Republican war of aggression.
