Full disclosure – I have a personal axe to grind. However I know damn well I’m not the only Veteran who has experienced the same issue at times. I never had an issue with receiving my prescriptions from the VA (and I’ve been getting my health care from them since 2003) until Louis DeJoy was appointed by Trump to run the Postal Service. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say ‘run it into the ground so it can be privatized.’ Since Postal Service is set out in the Constitution eliminating it entirely is problematic but DeJoy already had connections with USPS competitors.
If you recall back in 2020 there was ample evidence that given how much (due to COVID) mail-in balloting would take place screwing with delivery would Trump hoped help him win. So he wanted a guy who would sabotage things. And DeJoy sure as hell tried! Many of us assumed that DeJoy would have been fired long ago. President Biden had a LOT on his plate when he took office but again, I and a lot of others figured at some point he’d get it done. Not an easy task and there would have been some heat for it to be sure but it would have revved up Democrats. Of that I’m sure.
But instead DeJoy has been left in place. As this article by Politico indicates he’s even forged some goodwill by working with John Podesta to “Green” the USPS delivery fleet of trucks. The article notes an improved relationship over time between DeJoy and the current administration, which started with the USPS role in distributing COVID test kits. To me it seems for DeJoy it was a no-brainer attempt to gain enough good will to avoid getting fired. Later came the issue of “greening” the USPS. Now, at least privately DeJoy is on board with being a green advocate. However, if you look closely at the article he was resistant at first to the scope of what the administration wanted to do. Again, I think he was more playing along in case Biden won re-election. I’ll talk more about that later.
The thing is, from where I sit DeJoy is a dormant virus. Like the chicken-pox virus which once you’ve had that disease lies dormant in your body. But it’s there and if like me you’ve suffered a bout (or more than one) of Shingles you know how ugly and painful that virus can be when conditions allow it to flourish. Ask yourself this: in the new administration when Team Trump demands a halt to the purchase of additional electric postal delivery trucks that are in the pipeline what do you think will happen? DeJoy will move heaven and earth to stop a single new one from being added! Make a note of that. It’s coming folks.
What’s set me off is as I said something more personal. If you get health care from the VA and they prescribe medications for chronic conditions you get refills delivered by mail. It’s easy to go on the VA website when something is running low and order refills. All the info you need is right there and when you are down to your last refill you just contact your doctor so they can renew it. Most prescriptions are three-month refills. One is advised to allow up to two weeks for delivery but most of the time it takes about a week after ordering online for your prescription refills to arrive in your mailbox.
UNLESS THEY GET LOST. As I said earlier I never had that happen until after DeJoy took over as head of the Postal Service. For those who don’t know, Trump had a few doctor buddies down at Mar A Lago he asked to ‘take a look’ at the VA and ‘see what they could do.’ By which he meant talk to folks and see how we can f**k with things so with the long-held conservative goal of dismantling the entire system. PRIVATIZING it. The VA Healthcare system is pure “Socialized Medicine” and despite a couple of well-publicized examples of problem facilities overall it has a long, storied tradition of providing quality care. More importantly year after year surveys show a higher level of satisfaction than with any other health care company/system.
Finding ways to screw with that, like say ‘losing prescriptions’ or sending notice they are ‘undeliverable’ due to a problem with the address is a way to create dissatisfaction. Yes, in instances before this current one I’ve been told the address on the package didn’t match what I was telling the USPS was my address – the one they have on file. I’ve known it was bullshit because the VA has always had my address correct in their system. When they print out the plastic envelope the prescription bottles are placed in they do so with my correct address. Then hand it over to the USPS.
And all of a sudden after DeJoy takes over the USPS says the address on the package is wrong? When I keep getting prescriptions ordered at a similar time with the correct address? I call bullshit. Now, I have two prescriptions that got lost at the USPS facility in Charleston, SC. I ordered them on Nov. 6, and the VA filled them the next day and according to the USPS tracking info they were at the nearby Charleston facility on Nov. 7. When the middle of Nov. came and I was almost out of those meds I also notice that second tracking entry dated Nov. 8. It said something to the effect of ‘moving through the Charleston facility’ and after that no activity shown.
I kept checking daily and no activity was shown. I ran out of the medications so I contacted the USPS to find out what the problem was. Back on Monday I actually got a call from a rep. who told me two contradictory things. First that a search had been done but they couldn’t find any package with that tracking number. Needless to say I wasn’t happy to hear that and (yes, politely) said so. THEN she said they’d never gotten any package from the VA to begin with! WTF? I asked how that was possible since THEIR own tracking acknowledged receipt, assigned a tracking number and had a second entry the next day about it moving through the facility. She was caught and she knew it.
I didn’t want to rip on her too much because she has her orders from above. But from where I sit it’s a sign of what’s to come. I’m dead certain I’m far from the only Veteran who has experienced this type of crap since the election. I’m also certain it’s going to become more common. As in the part about the USPS telling us to ignore the evidence of our own eyes r.e. their tracking system – and instead accept their word ‘it’s all the VA’s fault!’ That they (the USPS) never, golly gee ever got any package from the VA in the first place!
Sure, DeJoy has been making nice with the Biden administration. For now. However come late January mark my words he’s going to go on a Trump ordered tear to f**k up the postal service. And given the conservative desire to get rid of the VA use it to do things like “lose” Veteran’s prescriptions and blame it all on the VA. So we will complain to our Congress Critters. So spread the word folks. It’s coming. We need to do some pre-emptive work in fact because I for one believe it’s coming.
In the meantime I’d dearly love an early present for Christmas. Fire Louis DeJoy.
I agree. I thought he’d be gone soon after Biden took office. I’ve been pretty disappointed. It’s not just VA mail. I sent Christmas cards to my grandkids last year 3 weeks before Christmas (with quite a lot of money in them) and they didn’t show up until well after Christmas. I was pretty stressed out about that. Also, they’ve removed several drop boxes since DeJoy took over.
The president cannot fire him. The postal board has to do it and I think right now it’s evenly divided, D vs R.
This is the last chance to order your free Covid tests from USPS. You get four like before. Fast turn around. And the lovely new administration will be dismantling the VA health care system as one of their first goals. My husband relies on that as well and we were livid when we read about that. Remember hoe the ACA was going to have death squads to kill Grammy and grampa? No, it didn’t happen. But the GQP will ensure we all die, even magats. Veterans voted for this. SMH.