The Right for Veterans and Wounded Soldiers to Have Exceptional Health Care

May 9th, 2016

To whom it may concern,

Our own military, whose job it is to protect and serve, is unable to receive adequate healthcare from the Veteran’s Administration Hospitals when they are hurt or sick. This is horrible! However, the VA hospitals are overwhelmed with so many wounded and veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the 1990s the VA discovered that there is a problem in their system. They decided to submit to accountability through electronic records and accumulated data of wait time and how their money is spent. Almost 25 years later, the Veteran’s Administration has still shown to provide unacceptable care to veterans and wounded soldiers because of their continued extended wait time for patients. In addition, overspending and unsatisfactory management at the VA and the Veteran’s Hospitals along with the active ignoring of Congress’s Response of the Choice Act has continued to grant inferior health care for our soldiers. Therefore, veterans should be given better health care.

The VA hospitals transport all veterans and wounded soldiers on a wait list that can last anywhere from two weeks to a month. “In May 2014, the Department’s Inspector General launched an investigation after managers of a VA hospital in Phoenix, AZ were accused of concealing month long wait times” (Auerbach). When the local veteran’s hospital has a long wait time, most veterans and soldiers will ignore the pain and could die. In fact, 1,000 veterans lose their lives because the VA has such an extended wait time (Dinan). One veteran says, “I’m not going to roll over and die just because the VA’s not taking care of me and other veterans” (Slack). Veterans themselves are fed up with the VA hospitals and how long they have to wait. Some doctors do not have licence for doctoring and this is illegal, so in conclusion the VA could have bad doctors.

Many citizens would say that the VA is giving exceptional care and has taken excellent care of the veterans. Forbes magazine discusses that the reason there is data on wait times at Veteran’s Hospitals is because the VA has requested this data to be gathered since the 1990s. In addition, “VA healthcare system has consistently outperformed the non-VA/private sector in quality of care and patient safety” (Krumholz). However this has been proven to not be true both in individual reports and in looking at the data. In USA Today it states that the VA is giving veterans a protracted wait time. This shows that the VA is not taking immediate care of the veterans.

Furthermore, the VA is overspending and has unacceptable management. The VA needed one billion dollars to bring in wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and soldiers. The federal government gave the VA $845 million in 2001 alone! “But Mr. Coburn (chief investigator for Congress) traced the problem to unsatisfactory management and lax working standards, not to lack of money. In one finding, he said VA doctors average about half the workload that private-practice primary care physicians do, suggesting there is room for them to take more patients” (Dinan). Doctors are not meeting up to the standards that they need to meet, so why should veterans and wounded soldiers trust them? Some poor care has even led to veteran death. This is sometimes caused because the doctors have mistreated them. The VA relies on the government to pay for services, equipment, and personnel without the necessary accountability. Moreover the government is being taken advantage of by overspending on paying the doctors, and the nurses as their workload does not equal private practice! In addition, some VA hospitals are so poorly cleaned that the beds were dirty and this caused a few veterans to become very sick or even can kill the weak veterans. By not having careful leadership at the VA this is affecting the veterans and their health because the staff is not performing their job in a manner as would be expected.

Lastly Congress knew that veterans and wounded soldiers were not being taken care of so they passed the Choice Act in 2005. This is a law that tells the veterans that they have the option to go their local doctors or hospitals if the local VA can not provide the care for the veterans. For example, in Oklahoma City this situation happened for George Purifoy, who is a veteran from Vietnam. He had to have his nose cut off, because of radiation damage and poor care at the local VA hospital. The VA told George that he could only seek care at a VA hospital. The closest VA hospital that could provide adequate care for Purifoy was six hours away! However, he could have sought care, according to the Choice Act, at a local hospital across the street. USA Today says, “Congress passed the Choice Act designed to allow veterans to seek care in the private sector if their local VA could not meet their needs” (Slack). The VA has further injured those who have protected us by ignoring the law and limiting their freedom when our veterans and soldiers are sick and injured.

In conclusion, veterans and soldiers have protected us and should receive the finest care. Unfortunately the Veteran’s Administration has shown to provide unacceptable care to veterans and wounded soldiers because of the extended wait time for patients. In addition, overspending and unsatisfactory management at the Veteran’s Administration and the Veteran’s Hospitals along with ignoring the Congress’s Response of the Choice Act has continued to allow inferior health care. Veterans, who have defended our freedom, shouldn’t be treated so horribly in their time of need when they deserve to have great care!

Sincerely,

Lucas Rand

(5th grader at West Woods Upper Elementary School in Farmington, CT.)

Work Cited

Auerbach, David I,; Weeks, William, B,; Brantley, Ian. “Health Care Spending and Efficiency in the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs”, RAND Corporation, 2013.

Dinan, Stephen. "Poor Care at VA Hospital Costs 1,000 Veterans Their Lives, Report Says." Washington Times. N.p., 24 June 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

Krumholz, Harlan. "3 Things to Know Before You Judge VA Health System."Forbes 23 May 2014: 1-2. Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 23 May 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

McCaughey, Betsy. "Veterans Can Expect More Bad Health Care from Obama’s VA." New York Post. N.p., 22 Dec. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.

Slack, Donovan. "I No Longer Trust Them to Fix Me When I Am Broken."USA Today. N.p., 22 Dec. 2015. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.