My mother had died in October and my father was acting a bit strange. He was seeing people that weren’t there and driving to his bank at 3am…… His doctor figured he was just depressed, sent him to an HMO psychiatrist, and she prescribed some pills. Soon, Dad was crawling around searching the bushes for my mother, who he was convinced had just jumped from the third-floor balcony……..

Emergency mental health professionals got him back into the apartment, and after examining him were convinced that the drug he was on was the wrong drug.

The advertising on TV for that drug said that older people with dementia could die if they were taking that medication. “Ask your doctor…….”

I asked his HMO psychiatrist about this and she told me that she was “the doctor” and I was annoying her with all my pestering about my father.

A few weeks later we had flown my father from his apartment in Florida to my house in California. Two days before he arrived I called the Veterans Administration clinic in San Bruno. We had signed my father up for VA care a short while before (he is a WWII veteran who was stationed in Dachau during the war crimes trials against the Nazis). The receptionist at the clinic listened to my story as I told her her my father would be arriving on Friday and he needed to see a doctor.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Wiesner, we can’t possibly see him until Monday.”

“You mean, Monday, a few days from now?” I asked.

“Yes. But if he needs more urgent care you can take him to any VA hospital.”

G-D save me from government health care! (Really?)

On Monday we saw a primary care doctor and a psychiatrist. Within a few weeks the VA doctors decided that my father was indeed on the wrong medications and he began a long journey to, well, a somewhat more stable place.

He’s very ill. His disease is known as Dementia with Lewy Bodies. If he had stayed in Florida, with his private insurance HMO caring for him, he would have died within a few months. Of this I have NO doubt.

While I know without a doubt also, that the VA health care system is not perfect, and different parts of the country are totally different, I feel VERY called to speak out about the absolutely superb care my father receives from the VA.

His doctor and psychiatrist are located minutes from his house, in a small clinic. The place is always immaculate. The staff is always caring and responsive. When we arrive for a 9am appointment we almost NEVER wait. The only time the psychiatrist kept us waiting was on a day when an Iraq vet had come in without an appointment, really needing immediate care. Would we mind waiting? Duh!

The hospital in San Francisco is incredible. When my father suffered a setback and had to be hospitalized, they assigned someone to sit by his bed 24/7. Seriously – someone sat by his bed every minute for a week. Given his mental condition, he needed someone there. Given my mental condition…. I needed help too! No matter where I went in that HUGE and hectic hospital, if I looked even the tiniest bit lost, someone on the staff would stop and offer to help me. Doctors, nurses, aids, technicians…. if they see someone looking lost, offer to help.

G-D please save me from government health care!

Really?

My father needed some special tests so I called the appointment line. It took about two minutes on hold before someone came on to talk to me (two minutes on hold….. really?!?!?). She asked if the need was urgent since there was quite a waiting list for that particular test. “No.” I told her. “OK, how about next Friday?” she asked. “You mean ten days from now?” I asked. “Yes – if it isn’t urgent that’s the soonest I can get you in.”

Really? A non-urgent test and I only have to wait ten days?

G-D, please save me from government health care.

My father needs a whole bunch of prescriptions. Every year the VA looks at my father’s income and assets and determines what his co-payments will be (zero right now). I manage all his prescriptions through the VA web site. Click, click, click and his refills are ordered. Three months worth show up in my mailbox always a week before they’re needed. When I blew it and forgot to order one refill, the VA hospital in SF filled it in a few days (chiding me for forgetting but making sure my father had his medication).

Whenever we see ANY doctor in the system, that doctor has complete access to every test, every scan, every other doctor’s notes, EVERYTHING that has ANYTHING to do with my father’s health. Click, click, ah look at that EKG from last year…. click, click, ah I see that the neurologist noticed a slight change in movement….. click, click, ah let me look at what his last blood test results showed…… ah…….. Gee, the computer’s a little slow today, but ah… here it is…….

G-D, please save me from government health care! Really?

Enough. I know about Walter Reed. I know about bad colonoscopies. I know about soldiers who wait months to get into the system. I know also that under President Bush, we SEVERELY underfunded the VA. With all that, if the VA would let me take the money I currently pay to my HMO and give it to them to care for me (I’m a vet too), I’d do it in a heartbeat.

So, there’d better be a PUBLIC plan in whatever legislation comes out of Congress for health care reform. If it is nearly as good as the VA, and not nearly as bad as my father’s old HMO, I’m signing up.


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