Report: Poor Care at VA Hospital Caused

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Report: Poor Care at VA Hospital Caused
19
Mon, 09-15-2008 - 3:02pm
Report: Poor Care at VA Hospital Caused 9 Deaths

by David Schaper




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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 2:21pm

mom, personal experience.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2007
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 3:20pm

Then it sounds like we need to focus some of our energies into demanding more accountability at the employee level.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 3:34pm

I think I may have been on the same airline...

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2006
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 4:03pm

<

- more responsive to customers


- more motivated


- harder working


Are all public employees bad? Of course not.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2007
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 4:06pm

I know the McCain and Obama camps lurk on this board.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 5:01pm
If both camps are lurking I am thrilled that we are giving them some opinions on things that they need to work on.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 5:35pm

From "Financialsense.com"


This chart is from the chapter State & Local Government Spending Report). In 1946 there were 2.3 state & local government employees for every 100 citizens. Last year there were 6.5 such government employees for each 100 citizens. That's an increased load of 4.2 more employees per 100 citizens than before. Employee counts increased 50% faster than the general population since 1990.


If this sector's productivity had just kept even with population growth today, there would be 12 million fewer such workers in that sector, resulting in huge reductions in property taxes, sales taxes, and income taxes with much lower regulatory costs burdening today's families. If that sector had increased productivity, the difference would be even larger than that 12 million excess.


A 64% reduction of these employees would be required to meet the prior employee-to-citizen ratio.


More often than not state & local government employees receive more job security, more time off, higher pay, better medical insurance & pension benefits and inflation protection than most private sector employees. And, today most local governments out-source many services (trash collection, etc.) performed by their own employees in the past, which should reduce per capita counts, not increase them.


True productivity and efficiency improvement by state and local governments should result in fewer and fewer employees per capita - not more. QUESTION: How many state and local governments specifically show reductions in their budgets headcount from budgeted productivity improvements? Check your own local government for the answer.


Or:


In 2005, a New York Times investigation found that as much as 40 percent of the Empire state’s $45 billion annual Medicaid budget was frittered away through fraud, mismanagement, abuse, and the indifference of Albany lawmakers. Two years earlier the Yankee Institute for Public Policy did a study for the October/November issue of the American Enterprise, which showed that if all 47.6 million U.S. public school children were educated with the same efficiency as private and parochial schools, the cumulative savings annually would be greater than all the state budget deficits combined


Public universities, which have already suffered declining taxpayer support over the last two decades, have actually improved their productivity to around 2.5 percent annually -- approximately the same rate as private American industry. Declining government support led to the elimination of needless bureaucratic overhead, the substitution of adjunct and part-time instructors for tenure-track faculty, and the redesign of courses to make better use of online technology.


The problem, of course, is that importing such savings to America will not go down well with public employee unions, which have grown accustomed to extracting generous benefits from politicians. August, 2006, data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that the average federal civilian worker earns $106,579 a year in total compensation, or twice the $53,289 in wages and benefits for the typical private employee. Since 2000, federal pay has risen 38 percent, or double the pay increases for workers in manufacturing, retail, finance, private health care, and construction.

At the state level, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, government workers have been collecting nearly 50 percent more in total compensation than the average private sector employee, with taxpayers subsidizing 128 percent more than private employers to fund health care benefits and 162 percent more on retirement benefits.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2006
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 8:10pm

This article reeks of propaganda.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2006
Tue, 09-16-2008 - 8:50pm
Oh, and one more point.

 

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