Thinking Out Loud: Military Veterans: We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

For those of us somewhat skeptical of the federal government’s ability to effectively take over the health care of 315 million American citizens, the recent scandal at the Veterans Affairs Department may be living (or dying) proof.

Evidence strongly suggests that at a VA hospital in Phoenix, 40 veterans died while enduring interminable delays waiting for treatment. Meanwhile, the deaths of 23 veterans have been linked to delayed cancer screenings dating back several years, and at a VA outpatient clinic in Fort Collins, Colorado, thousands of veterans needing treatment waited months. A recent report by the Government Accounting Office found that in a third of the cases it reviewed, it took nearly seven months for a VA patient to schedule a colonoscopy, while forty percent of the veterans needing physical therapy waited up to five months.

One program analyst noted that once appointments were scheduled, they usually took place within the standard14-day waiting period, “but we’re making them wait 6 to 20 weeks to create that appointment. That is unethical and a disservice to our veterans.”

What is also unethical is attempting to cover up this criminal neglect. Evidence abounds that in VA hospitals and clinics records were altered, both to conceal the long waiting periods and to create the false impression that veterans were receiving timely care. According to a report by the VA’s Office of Medical Inspector, at the Fort Collins clinic clerks were told to alter appointment records so it looked like the medical staff was seeing patients within the agency’s 14-day goal, and those clerks who failed to comply were punished. By contrast, an employee of a VA Medical Center in Chicago says medical staffers who did falsify records were given bonuses.

Naturally, the wheels of Congress, in particular the House Veterans Affairs Committee, are beginning to turn, and subpoenas have been issued demanding the documents germane to this scandal. Also, there are calls for the Veterans Affairs director, Eric Shinseki, to resign.

But Shinseki, a decorated combat veteran himself, is not the real problem. The real problem is that federal bureaucracies are inherently inefficient, ineffective and uncaring. Indeed, according to our federal government’s own statistics, our military veterans, who depend on a federal bureaucracy, the Veterans Affairs Department, for their health care, wait twice as long for that care as their fellow civilian citizens, who do not depend on a federal bureaucracy for their health care.

Or, at least, they didn’t use to depend on a federal bureaucracy. But the end game for Obamacare is to put another, much larger federal bureaucracy in charge of providing health care coverage for the rest of us. Could this Veterans Affairs scandal be a glimpse of our future?