Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) talks about the “dysfunctional” Indian health care, while other lawmakers call for a criminal probe into the veterans health care scandal. If this is how government is treating veterans and Native Americans, what does that say about government health care for the rest of the country? That and more is below.
AP– Senate chair: fix ‘dysfunctional’ Indian health
The chairman of the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee says he wants the Obama administration to address the “dysfunction” that is hobbling Native American health care and causing rising dissatisfaction over poor and delayed care on reservations.
Chairman Jon Tester has invited tribal leaders from Montana and Wyoming to a Tuesday field hearing in Billings to air grievances about the U.S. Indian Health Service — a $4.4 billion agency that provides health care for 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Lee Newspapers- IHS patient: ‘It’s not quality health care, it’s whatever care’
Some of these men and women on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation were misdiagnosed; others suffered prolonged delays in receiving medical attention. Some were given the wrong dosage of medicine. Some had loved ones die before they got the appropriate care.
Similar problems with IHS have been reported for decades throughout Montana’s Indian reservations.
MichelleMalkin.com: How America treats illegal aliens vs. veterans
A government that fails to secure its borders is guilty of dereliction of duty. A government that fails to care for our men and women on the frontlines is guilty of malpractice. A government that puts the needs of illegal aliens above U.S. veterans for political gain should be prosecuted for criminal neglect bordering on treason.
In Sacramento, Calif., lawmakers are moving forward with a budget-busting plan to extend government-funded health insurance to at least 1.5 million illegal aliens.
In Los Angeles, federal bureaucrats callously canceled an estimated 40,000 diagnostic tests and treatments for American veterans with cancer and other illnesses to cover up a decade-long backlog.
National Review’s Jim Geraghty: Congress Wants a Criminal Investigation of the VA. Why Not Obama?
“Only the Department of Justice and the FBI have the resources, the expertise and the authority to do a prompt and effective criminal investigation of the secret waiting lists, potential destruction of documents, falsification of records, in effect, the cooking of books and covering up that may have occurred,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, agreed. The “Department of Justice needs to get involved,” he said on the same program.The VA’s inspector general is investigating 26 sites to determine whether employees covered up long waits for medical appointments, and the Justice Department is already involved to some extent.
Los Angeles Times: Lawmakers call for criminal investigation of Veterans Affairs facilities
The lawmakers’ appearances on the Sunday talk shows came a day after the VA announced it would allow more veterans to use private medical services to meet growing demands for health care.
Kinzinger welcomed the move but asked, “What took so long?”
The Daily Caller- MD Congressman: Give Veterans A Choice Outside the VA System. Give Them Vouchers. [VIDEO]
Congressman Andy Harris (R -MD), a Navy veteran and Maryland doctor with VA medical training, hopes Veterans Affairs Secretary Gen. Eric Shinseki is “madder than hell” but ultimately, believes the VA Secretary “should be fired.”
“I’ve held for years that we should give every Veteran the ability to voucher out of the VA and go to a private healthcare system,” Harris told WMAL. “Every single veteran should have a choice. Don’t make them do it. Give them the choice. I will tell you, give veterans the choice, most them, I believe, will choose to be taken care of outside the VA medical system. ”
The Daily Caller- Krauthammer: VA Scandal ‘Totally Dissolves’ Idea Of ‘Yes We Can’
He can’t even run a decades-old, normal, absolutely mundane healthcare system that are run everywhere in the world between here and Togo,” Krauthammer charged. “So the idea that this is a government that’s going to do great new things — universal preschool and all of these wonderful promises — is totally dissolved.”