Kanabuss

Coming from "cool_boner"...

"Grass is always greener" effect?

(I'm sure there's a sciency name for it.)

The American public needs to react to this problem by being informed. I can only speak for myself, when I say how the government should respond. The thing is, this is a huge issue, that isn't isolated to the VA. It has to do with how our government works and spends money, in general. I can only say that, in my experience, the VA was obviously inferior to private healthcare. For example, the VA insisted that I go through a "pre-transplant checklist". When my health started to deteriorate, I wasn't able to get the right dental appointments in time. I just kept getting more sick, needing more transfusions, as the medications slowly killed me, until I had a blast crisis, because I was waiting for dental appointments. It just doesn't make sense, but they hold these systems over logic.

It's in the soldier mentality to suffer in silence, so I'd bet that has something to do with it. As far as political ideals, I'm not the best person to ask. I'm not happy about being lied to by Bush and Cheney about the whole Iraq thing, in general. So, I, by extension, don't really feel very great about my part in the whole thing.

The VA can always make use of civilian volunteers. I would direct you to your local hospital, if you're interested in volunteering.

The VA, as a whole, is in need of pretty massive reform, as I see it. There is so much red tape and adherence to a broken system that it inhibits logical decision making. It's a complex problem and I've only seen a small part of it.