Before I start, "Let me be perfectly clear," as some of our politicians have been known to say, before they give a perfectly unclear, and in some cases, perfectly untrue, version of the truth as they see it.
When I report on the state of the VA Health Care system, I can only report from my perspective and based on what I have experienced. Sort of like the blind men who each truthfully reported on the shape of the elephant based on that part that he had carefully examined, I freely admit that I haven't examined the entire animal.
Along similar lines, I try to remember that when I read about "The state of our education system," How to fix our Social Security program," "The trouble with Trump," or even, "How to fix our national government," those writers are writing from their personal perspective and based on what they perceive. In addition, their verbiage (whether or not they actually believe what they are writing is a question for another day) is shaped by their desire to eat. If they don't write what their readers want to read (or their editors want them to write) they don't eat. That's a simplistic conclusion but a pretty effective cudgel. In my case, I don't get paid for this blog so I'll try to report objectively on the subject.
Back to my experiences with the VA Health Program, hereinafter abbreviated as VA.
Like most veterans who seek help from the VA, I have a medical problem related to my service in our military. As with some of our other benefit programs (the Social Security disability program comes to mind), our Congress has relaxed, or should I say "broadened" the standards for receiving treatment. But, never mind, in my case I have clear cut and documented, "service-connected hearing loss," as the legaleze reads. Actually, that's no surprise since, in the fifties and sixties, we routinely fired rifles and worked around loud noises without benefit of hearing protection.
Incidentally, the pendulum may have swung a little far the other way, but I'm glad to see personal protection, of various kinds, mandated by the military and most of industry. Too bad many of our younger population don't listen to the advice of doctors and old farts like me who say, "WEAR HEARING PROTECTION!" and "turn down the volumn on those hearing-killer earbuds and earphones."
"But I wander," as a good friend is known to say. I had a hearing test at the VA Otolaryngology Department in early December which confirmed my degree of hearing loss. They ordered new hearing aids and scheduled me for fitting and tuning.
The librarian at our VFW Post had put aside some boxes of books to donate to to the VA so I picked those up and went to the hospital early to drop them off at the Volunteer Services Office. Their friendly staff quickly processed our donation so I arrived in the Hearing Section well before my appointed time.
The waiting area was a little Spartan but comfortable so I cooled my heels and made a few notes on the memo app on my phone for a future blog post.
Seems like I can't help but digress today. But that's a subject for another post--The many uses of that magic gizmo most of us carry around, that conveniences, connects and, occasionally, confounds us. Young people can't imagine such a state of affairs but "in the old days" people actually carried a paper notebook and pen to make notes. Hard to imagine, but it's true.
At 1515 (3:15 P.M., in American civilian time), right on time, the technician came to the waiting area, called my name, escorted me to the sound booth, introduced herself and proceeded with the fitting.
The service was excellent, the technician went to extra lengths to make sure my new hearing aids were tuned correctly to my hearing loss and she patiently answered all my questions. In another post I'll describe my new ears and how they work.
As did the blind men reporting on the elephant, I can only report on what I experienced in the VA, but my apprehension of the elephant is different from what I sometimes see in the popular media where we often are led to believe that the VA Health Care system is unsatisfactory and kills veterans. I'm sure their service, like that of any giant organization, will have its problems but that's normal and I think they are working to make corrections.
Over the years, when dealing with the Seattle VA Hospital, my experiences have been uniformly positive. Waiting times for appointments, waiting times when seeing a doctor or technician, quality of the goods provided and overall service have been very satisfactory.
In summary, based on my experiences, I highly recommend using the VA system if you are eligible.
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