After a number of scandals came to light in recent years involving Veterans Affairs Medical Centers, it is time to rethink how we repay veterans’ for their service to our country.
While I am a firm believer in the axiom of minimum government and maximum freedom, I also am a firm believer that an extraordinary commitment such as service in our armed forces warrants extraordinary compensation. Being a veteran myself, having served six years in the United States Navy (twice deployed to the Middle East while aboard the USS Samuel B. Roberts), the son of a World War II veteran who narrowly escaped dying on the front lines in France, and the great-grandson of a Civil War veteran, it’s possible I may be predisposed to some bias on this issue.
Reform of Veterans Affairs services could be readily achieved by enrolling all qualified veterans into Blue Cross Blue Shield and then closing-down all of the large-scale VA Medical Centers. At that point, the V.A. should use use means-testing to determine co-pays and deductibles.
This would give veterans greater freedom to seek local doctors, who will be more inclined to take their health needs seriously. It also would put less strain on those vets in terms of transportation to and from doctor appointments: it is far less challenging to travel to-and-from their physicians’ family practices than making arrangements for getting to Dayton, Cleveland, and other facilities.
For the time-being, I do advocate establishing and maintaining much-smaller-scale clinics where combat veterans who have served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other U.S. military campaigns over the last two decades can receive counseling, therapy, and other applicable treatment for PTSD as a result of their experiences overseas.
For all my advocacy for returning as many public operations as possible to the private sector, even I have to acknowledge there are some matters where a family physician cannot adequately meet a veteran’s needs.
Veterans Affairs reform
