Vietnam War Veterans Analysis

War veterans have been experiencing poor service dating back to an article released in 1974, these issues are still occurring today, and they are ending fatally (WND Staff, Military and Defense par. 1). The Veteran Health Administration (VA) was established in 1778 and provides medical care, benefits, and burials/memorials for all American veterans. To get into the VA system one must be discharged from the armed services and then enroll in the system. Patients must undergo a test to review their information (Zezima par. 5,7). Long wait times and false records are problems the public is facing, which is causing multiple fatalities. Curt Devine stated on CNN, “More than 1,000 veterans may have died in the last decade because of malpractice or
Curt Devine with CNN spoke with Sen. Tom Coburn, a physician, and Devine reported that Coburn said, “that if the VA's budget had been properly handled and the right management had been in place, many of these deaths could have been avoided” (par. 4). The VA department lost billions of dollars as a result of the substandard management and that is ruining the medical care of the veterans (Devine par. 6). About 1.5 billion more than usual was spent on construction of four VA hospitals, and a substantial amount of money went toward paying legal settlements (Devine par. 9). The report says, “Since 2001, the VA has paid about $845 million in malpractice costs, of which $36.4 million was used to settle claims involving delayed health care” (Devine par. 10). The staff and environment of the VA hospitals were defective as well, this can be shown by the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a rare form of pneumonia, in 2011-2012. The spreading of the disease was not because of damaged equipment, rather a human mistake. In Pittsburgh at least six veterans died from the severe outbreak of the disease (Zezima par. 18). A report taken by CNN revealed the corrupt staff, it declares, “crimes committed by VA staff, including drug dealing, theft and sexual abuse of patients dating back many years” (Devine par. 14). At the VA in Florida a staff member was sentenced six years in
Massive plans have been made for the future with a majority of the plans revolving around the financial aspects of the system. These plans will progressively take a toll on the taxpayers and the federal government because the new VA bill is rationing out 35 billion dollars to the veterans health-care system in the span of three years (Huntsberry-Lett par. 6). With the new increase in budget the VA is going to build new facilities, hire a larger quantity of medical staff who are qualified, and add private care. A bill passed by congress mandates that the VA is forced to pay for private care of veterans that live 40 miles away from a hospital (Huntsberry-Lett par. 6). Other reforms announced by secretary McDonald are expected to be put in place and have been listed by Tom Price, an author for CQ Press. One of the solutions proposed was to “[s]implify the VA's structure so veterans have a single point of contact” (1000). Single point contact would create personalized visits, benefiting both the patient and physician. Another proposition is to involve the community by establishing community veteran advisory councils. Creating these councils allows the public to aid veterans on a local level (Price 1000). A way to fix the broken management of the VA was to fire four senior officials (Devine, et al par. 1). According to the VA headquarters, “Directors at the VA