The Big VA Health Care Scandal

tmfx47: Tell us about your experiences with the VA.

tmfx47: I had a sleep study done on me in April. They did this to determine if I had a sleep disorder. Five months later they sent me a letter in the mail telling me what I had been diagnosed with and how they plan to treat it. It took them five months to begin treatment. That is five months of my life that I have been unfairly ill. It should not have taken five months.

Metaverseguy: I've used the VA for years. Most of my visits there have been pretty routine. Normal checkups to check vitals and then left. But I went to the emergency room twice at a local non-VA hospital in one year for the same symptoms. So they began to run some tests on me to find out what the cause was, but after several tests - MRI, CAT scan, barium, x-ray, they couldn't figure out the problem. During this time I had abdominal pain again and went to the VA ER instead of a local hospital since I knew they wouldn't charge me. I began to recover a little and was able to keep food down so they released me, but unfortunately it was too soon and I went to a local non-VA hospital again since I was in so much pain. Finally, the doctors at the VA discovered the problem and prescribed me some medicine to fix it. While on the medicine I'm doing great and don't have any to return to the ER ever or experience any pain.

Now let me explain my 2 experiences. In one year I went to the ER 4 times. 3x at a local hospital and 1x at the VA hospital. After 3x at the local hospital they ran some brief tests on me and told me there was nothing wrong with me. They just hooked me up to an IV and gave me drugs to deal with the pain. The nurse at the VA released me early and I was especially angry about that when I got the bill for the ER at a local hospital (20K) for 3 days and a misdiagnosis. Fortunately, I was able to dismiss the cost of the ER visit using a financial assistance appeal form and only paid $400 through Radiology. The VA paid for my first 2 visits since it was considered an emergency and I was in pain for several hours before going to the ER room. Unable to drive 30 minutes to the nearest VA with an emergency room.

The VA put a pill capsule inside me to take photos of my intestine, since they didn't notice anything wrong during an endoscopy and colonoscopy. Finally, they were able to diagnose it as crohn's disease after ruling out lactose tolerance and a gluten allergy. Then, they went in and performed surgery on a piece of intestine that was basically ruined from the disease. Without the VA I could have paid upwards of 50K to diagnose my illness and for the ER visits to a private doctor. The surgery could have cost another 20-100K through a private doctor. I'm definitely grateful for their service and glad to have donated several times to disabled and homeless veterans. Of course, this all comes at the cost of people who have risked their lives for this country. I could have gone to Iraq or Afghanistan during my service and lost a limb like so many people I see when going there. I've seen people unable to function from agent orange and hundreds of people who have suffered from mental illness that they developed during their service.

On the other hand, there just really isn't enough doctors for how many patients there are. The place is always packed and the wait is very long. I couldn't get a hold of my specialist to renew my prescription for 6-8 months when she went on vacation and then got pregnant. The pain returned. In Phoenix they said that they put people on a special list to avoid and over 100 ended up dying from waiting too long before seeing a doctor. I almost moved to Phoenix, AZ for a job but wasn't really that worried since I knew that they were probably undergoing large amounts of reform from the bad publicity. I know that there are VA hospitals all over the country serving millions of veterans and I worked in one as a scrub when I served. I even offered to volunteer at this local one, but they didn't need any help.

I don't really think that it's too different from regular hospitals as far as medical care. Even the best doctor unfortunately makes mistakes. The greatest difference is the financial part. One of the greatest problems with hospitals has always been the high cost and dealing with insurance agencies. People feel that only the richest people can afford the latest technology, research, and medicine to help fight their disease and sometimes it could be the difference between life and death. Hopefully, the ACA has opened up doors to a lot of people who otherwise had difficulty getting medical care.