There have been numerous reports recently across the Union of veterans being denied needed health care at
Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals.
The backlog of veterans on waiting lists for care was reduced by
fraudulent means by VA bureaucrats, including by the delay or even denial of
health care, in some cases until veterans died.
Those
veterans who are fully disabled currently may receive care from private health
care facilities of their choice and be reimbursed, but other veterans may only
receive free care outside of the VA’s system of hospitals and clinics from
military facilities or contracted hospitals, only if the needed care is not
available at a VA facility. The VA has
long been excessively bureaucratic, especially since at least the 1970s, and
its quality of care was not necessarily as good as civilian care, despite the
good effort of some of the health care providers and bureaucrats in its employ. Both the quality of care and the efficiency
of the VA had improved over the years. Nevertheless,
the VA has proved why government-run health care – or government-run any other
kind of industry – is a bad model, particularly when government has a monopoly,
as in the case of health care for most veterans. Indeed, a government monopoly is worse than a
private sector one, as it stifles competition, whereas a private monopoly is at
least potentially subject to competition.
The left
portrays government as better than the private sector, because public servants
are motivated by public good versus the private sector’s motivation of profit,
which the liberals regard evil because it is based upon self-interest. However, the VA scandal demonstrates that
even individual public employees can be self-interested, even to the point of
criminality. It should have been obvious
especially to the liberals in the Obama Administration who disdain the profit
motive that the financial incentives it offered VA employees to clear up the
backlog of veterans waiting for health care would encourage cheating, even by
public servants , as these bureaucrats would thereby profit from their
deception. Indeed, because of human
nature, there will always be at least some incompetence and scandal in
government. The private sector, even if
only motivated by self-interest, has more incentive to do public good than a
government monopoly and its staff.
Reimbursement
for the use of the services of any private health care facility should be an
option for all veterans. Eliminating this
government monopoly would improve health care for veterans by reducing their wait
times. The competition from the private
sector, which is often of superior quality, would also improve the care
rendered by the VA and make it more efficient in delivering that care.
As for the
political aspect of this scandal, unlike some of the other scandals of the
Obama Administration, the President and even his Cabinet Secretary for Veterans
Affairs were likely not aware of what lower-level federal bureaucrats were
doing, although better supervision might have discovered it sooner. However, the Administration is nonetheless
responsible, as the misdeeds were done under its management, which included offering the financial incentives. Regardless of what administration is in
power, the Democratic Party is responsible for scandals committed by federal
bureaucrats that harm people, as it is the party of government that boasts of
having created all these big-government federal programs to make people
dependent on the federal government and grateful to the Democrats. If it had not conceived of a government-run
monopoly health care system in the first place, instead of reimbursing veterans
for their health care, there would be no scandal and veterans would have likely
received their needed health care in a much timelier manner, instead of
suffering and dying because self-interested employees failed their duty to
serve.
It is worth
remembering that veterans, unlike other recipients of federal largess, have
earned their health care benefits through their usually self-less service to
the United States of America ,
often at great risk. The health care of
the veterans should be the priority, not preserving a government monopoly for
political reasons or the interest of a protected class of bureaucrats.
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