Full disclosure. This is intensely personal to me and my current situation. I’ll explain why later. I want to start with the BULLSH*T VA Secretary Doug Collins, a longtime advocate of privatizing all Veteran’s medical care is spewing. I don’t know whether the roughly 80,000 jobs he wants to eventually cut are directly from or only inspired (in consultation with) Elon Musk’s DOGE but the cuts have already started. More are coming. And services are being DENIED. I can vouch for that personally as I said.
I was too angry hours ago when I first read this story from UPI News to write about it. UPI reports Collins told the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee the 80k jobs he’d have to cut to meet the “15%” reduction goal he set a while back wasn’t a hard number. Still, he’s got plans to cut 585 contracts and has already fired 2,400 people. Collins says he wants to eliminate another 70.5k of what he calls “non-essential” people. To paraphrase the movie character Inigo Montoya I don’t think “non-essential” means what he thinks it means. Or, more likely he knows exactly what it means and is LYING. Like I said he’s long worked on the conservative dream of eliminating the VA Medical Care system.
Collins spoke of DEI stuff (of course), ‘interior designers’ (I doubt those who work on accessibility and at least moderately comfortable seating in waiting rooms see their jobs that way!) and so on. Again, I call bullshit. There’s nowhere near 70k such people. THAT means cuts to actual direct care to Veterans!
I said earlier this is personal and now I’ll tell you why because it’s illustrative of the far larger issue. I’m one person, but I’m one of over nine million Veterans who rely on the VA HealthCare System. Millions are already feeling the effects of Collin’s actions and it’s about to get worse. Much worse. As in outright denial of care for a range of services the VA Healthcare System provides. (And does an excellent job while providing said care) Those who follow me know this but for those who don’t over two decades ago I was diagnosed with Depressive Disorder. Multiple times since then it’s resulted in full-blown bouts of Depression. Several times I recognized I needed help and reached out. Again, for those who don’t know I have formal training and experience in counseling but I won’t bore you with the details. It suffices I understand better than the average person when it’s time to get help, that I’m not going to get better on my own.
Three times I’ve gotten excellent care from VA Psychologists. It was a godsend. (Yes, I’m agnostic but you know what I mean) With that high quality care I got better. Much better. But the demon is still there lurking inside me and late last year I was in the worst place mentally I’d ever been. I spiraled down hard. And fast. Keeping going just wasn’t worth it anymore. But luckily I had a moment of clarity and realized how far down I’d sunk. More importantly that while I hadn’t started thinking of “how” I was very close to that point, so I called the Psychiatrist who’s managed my care since I moved to North Carolina in 2014.
That led to an emergency referral to someone who agreed I needed counseling and as soon as possible. I had an initial intake appt. in December and that Psychologist put me in the queue to be assigned a counselor. She said it could take six weeks to two months as they were full up and others would have to complete their course of treatment before there’d be an opening. THAT was enough. Knowing that lifeline was there kept me going. Two months went by, and then three. Then came that phone call last month telling me sorry, but I wouldn’t be getting help after all. They were blocked from accepting any new patients! WTF?
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. And I’m sure Collins, that pissant Congress Critter from my hometown in southern Illinois and the rest of conservatives would shout PACT ACT at me. Funny thing about referring patients from the VA medical centers and clinics to private community providers. I used that process twice some years back. Even then it took for-freaking-ever to hear from the office at the Durham VA that arranges community care. And more time to get an actual appointment. In two instances in the last four years by the time I got my care from private providers in less than a month I could have gotten the original appointment at the VA!
So let’s just say I was not in a “It will be okay” mood when the VA Intake Psychologist said she could at my request refer me to the office that arranges community care. First of all I told her I KNOW the quality of care I’d get from the VA, and had no faith it would be anywhere near as good in the private sector in my area. (Even though I live in the Raleigh metro area) Second I said, I am a political junkie who keeps up on the news.
In some VA Medical Centers those offices had already been eliminated entirely. AND, in those still “open” staff has often been to the bone! Talk about a literal real-life and current day Catch-22. The current “Community Care” option flat-out sucked even before now. Yet Collins wants everyone to believe with LESS people these offices, as well as the parts of the system that actually provide care will improve!
So Collins and his ilk have said to me, and others too who got the same news “Eff off – go ahead and kill yourself if you get depressed enough. You and others too don’t matter.” I’ve said since then and still mean it that when I start my morning each day within a minute I’m fueled by a white-hot anger. I’ve told my Congress Critter’s offices and the DC and local offices of the GOPer from my hometown who I think now leads the House Veteran’s Affairs Committee I won’t give you a$$hole motherf**kers the satisfaction!’
That’s not a healthy attitude or way to live but it’s what keeps me going every single day. And since I’ve been engaging with former friends on FB recently they express distraught about what I’ve said on this. Even that they are praying for me. Give me a f**king break. Their prayers don’t mean jack sh*t to me or provide me the kind of help I need any more than their “thoughts and prayers” are worth a warm bucket of human waste after a mass shooting.
As I’ve said I’m just one Veteran. But again I want to emphasize I’ve shared what I’ve shared in the hopes those who’ve read this think about the fact that NINE MILLION Veteran’s depend on the VA for a range of health care services. The system has never, ever been fully funded. Conservatives have been on a long, intense effort for a very long time to cut funding to the system. And eventually end it entirely. I could write multiple articles about the unique expertise that exists in the VA system to address issues and needs specific to Veterans from physical to psychological. Expertise that simply doesn’t exist with civilian medical systems.
The bottom line is you can’t go making the kinds of CUTS Collins claims will improve services because they will actually GUT services instead! Which is exactly what he’s always wanted to do. So again I call him out as not just a LIAR but a GOD-DAMNED LIAR! I hope you will too. You might not have a Veteran in your family but I’m sure you know people who are. Maybe even Veterans who are part of that NINE MILLION strong group who not only get their care from the VA, but year after year in surveys say they are quite satisfied with it. Please don’t just complain to your elected officials. RAISE HELL to them like I do!
***Zoomers, we are always in need of donations. It’s been an especially rough month and my own health has not been great these past few weeks, which just adds to the frustration. Anything you can spare will be immensely appreciated. And thank you to all who have donated generously already. Ursula***
none of us will have healthcare especially ones on Medicaid and those who are on private healthcare will see their premium skyrocket that one really won’t see a paycheck, deductibles will skyrocket. Land of the fleece.
My brother is a Marine veteran, and his family depends on the VA, too. I don’t know if he’s having any trouble because he doesn’t talk about it. So, I’m willing to bet he has trouble, too. I know it pulled him out of major, major depression years ago, and has helped with his autistic daughter. I might have to ask, now that I know about you. I will, however, RAISE HELL to my reps about this. I’ve only been raising hell so far.