I can’t – or rather, wish I couldn’t – believe that it took over a month to finally get the appointment for the Fayetteville VA Neuro consult that my doctor ordered.  That’s over a month from the day the clinic first tried to contact me, not the total time since my doctor asked them to see me.  Anyway, I finally got added to their “triage group” so I could reply directly to the clinic about when I could be available for the consult, and we worked out a time and date for my 1-hour visit.  I’m seeing them next month.

People often wonder why veterans are among the loudest protestors of a nationalized health care system.  This is why.  Under the pre-Obamacare health system in the real world, a primary care doc could have honestly expected that if he wrote a neurology consult on a patient, that patient would at least have their appointment to see the neurologist by the end of the day, and might even be seen within a week.  My primary care doctor wrote this consult request IN JANUARY.  This is what our government being in charge of health care provisions does to speed and quality of care.  Veterans know this – and do not want anyone we care about to have to live with the same problems.  THAT is why veterans will always stand up to protest when the government tries to expand the controls it exercises over your health.  Trust me, you do not want a single-payer government health system.