Hey, the VA gets mostly positive ratings from those it serves. Its services also get high ratings. There are reporters, and others, who are paid to 'dig up dirt' on every misstep the VA or one of its providers makes and to publicize those missteps. Congress has oversight of the VA and members who dislike it use their privilege to call for information and hearings to address complaints, even on very short notice, taking VA staff away from their regular duties to respond to those complaints. I know this because I worked at a VA health care system.
I'm not saying and I won't say that the VA is perfect and I, too, along with others, had questions about decisions the 'higher ups' made. But there are facts that show that the VA serves people who are, on average, older, poorer and sicker with health conditions that members of many other health care systems. So long as the leaders of this country pursue wars, spend enormous amounts of money on the military and create more veterans, these issues will continue.
I am good friends with a lady that works for the VA and she says that a lot of this crap you hear on right-wing news sources is a bunch of sensationalist bullshit & that the VA is doing just fine.
It would be doing even better if these right-wing idiots would keep their damn dirty fingers out of it and try telling us the truth for once.
"Free" doesn't mean "poofed" into existence by some supernatural force. It means without expenditure at the point of use with the costs being spread out over the population as a whole rather than being piled on the individuals using the service involved.
Which is why it is usually applied to things that should be human rights (e.g., health care) or things that are so necessary to the economy and society that they amount to a universal benefit (e.g., education, infrastructure).
So I really really REALLY doubt your "progressive friends" have ever seriously proposed that "everything" should be "free."
I'm tired of my Progressive friends asking for everything to be free.
All "free" services in other countries are paid by VAT on all purchases. Wake up!
And single payer medical care ? Look at the VA.
Hey, the VA gets mostly positive ratings from those it serves. Its services also get high ratings. There are reporters, and others, who are paid to 'dig up dirt' on every misstep the VA or one of its providers makes and to publicize those missteps. Congress has oversight of the VA and members who dislike it use their privilege to call for information and hearings to address complaints, even on very short notice, taking VA staff away from their regular duties to respond to those complaints. I know this because I worked at a VA health care system.
I'm not saying and I won't say that the VA is perfect and I, too, along with others, had questions about decisions the 'higher ups' made. But there are facts that show that the VA serves people who are, on average, older, poorer and sicker with health conditions that members of many other health care systems. So long as the leaders of this country pursue wars, spend enormous amounts of money on the military and create more veterans, these issues will continue.
I am good friends with a lady that works for the VA and she says that a lot of this crap you hear on right-wing news sources is a bunch of sensationalist bullshit & that the VA is doing just fine.
It would be doing even better if these right-wing idiots would keep their damn dirty fingers out of it and try telling us the truth for once.
"Free" doesn't mean "poofed" into existence by some supernatural force. It means without expenditure at the point of use with the costs being spread out over the population as a whole rather than being piled on the individuals using the service involved.
Which is why it is usually applied to things that should be human rights (e.g., health care) or things that are so necessary to the economy and society that they amount to a universal benefit (e.g., education, infrastructure).
So I really really REALLY doubt your "progressive friends" have ever seriously proposed that "everything" should be "free."