Our Veterans Deserve Better

The VA needs a revamp.

“Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom, for they’ve suffered the scars of war. We can offer them no better tribute than to protect what they have won for us.” 

— Ronald Reagan

Not all federal holidays are alike.  Celebrations such as Independence Day and Labor Day have a prominent place in our society. Partly due to time off from work, vacations, sales, and special events are planned around these days often to the exclusion of their meaning and import.  Memorial Day is one of the most important holidays for all Americans and yet is often diminished as the beginning of summer or time to set up the grill.  Because it does not involve long weekends or specialized commercial events, Veterans Day does not get that attention that is due. Similar to Memorial Day, it should be acknowledged with reverence. 

Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces.

In one of his few positive acts, Woodrow Wilson noted on November 11, exactly one year after the end of World War I, that “To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations.” 

The United States Congress adopted a resolution on June 4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue annual proclamations calling for the observance of November 11 with appropriate ceremonies.  A Congressional Act on May 13, 1938, made November 11 in each year a legal holiday, “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.” In 1947, in acknowledgement of World War II, the day was renamed to its current National Veterans Day. 

If Memorial Day is for the fallen, Veterans Day is for those who served but fortunately, made it through that service.  But that does mean we should be sanguine.  One does not need to have seen it to understand that combat leaves broken bodies, and scarred minds.  Which brings me to note that on this Veterans Day we need to have a hard discussion about the medical care our veterans receive.  

The Veteran’s Administration was created by President Herbert Hoover on July 21, 1930. At that time, there were 54 hospitals, 4.7 million living Veterans, and 31,600 employees. 

The VA currently has four key missions.  The first and largest of these is a system featuring the largest integrated health care network in the United States, with 1,255 health care facilities including 170 large scale medical centers and nearly 1,100 outpatient clinics serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year.  The other three aspects of the VA consist of benefits, maintenance of national cemeteries and preparedness of war.  But despite these critical offerings, the VA at its core is a healthcare provider. And in that regard, it has had a history of challenges. 

An article from 2014 that ran on CNN by Michael Pearson catalogs these sad events. 

In 1946, The American Legion led a campaign to remove VA Administrator Gen. Omar Bradley due to a lack of facilities and difficulties veterans faced in getting services.  The next year a government commission found widespread waste, duplication, and inadequate care in the VA system.  In 1955 a second government reform commission found similar issues. In the 1970s Veterans became frustrated with the VA for failing to fund treatment and assistance programs. They also became aggravated when the VA failed to recognize that exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam caused many veterans' medical problems. 

The timing of the CNN article was related a major scandal. At least 40 veterans died while waiting for treatment at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System. The disgrace involved staffers keeping two sets of wait lists, one fake and one real, to make it seem like wait times were short.

In a piece from This Week that ran in 2018 entitled, “The crisis at Veterans Affairs” The article stated, “the department has long been overwhelmed by its patient load and hampered by paperwork and red tape. As a result, veterans can wait weeks or even months for treatment.”

And this year ProPublica issued this statement in regard to treatment of Veterans mental health, “The problems appear to be systemic. Over and over, the hospitals and clinics in the VA’s sprawling health care network have fallen short when it comes to treating people with mental illness.”

A posting from the American Addiction Centers notes, “Veterans are in the grips of a national health crisis, caused in part by toxic stress induced brain injury. Despite billions spent by the federal government, rates of suicide, homelessness, and substance abuse either rise or stay flat in the Veteran population.”

This is not to say that the VA system is completely broken, According to Medicare's patient satisfaction survey, VA hospitals received higher ratings than non-VA hospitals for all 10 core metrics, including overall hospital rating, communication with doctors, and willingness to recommend the hospital. But these are not just general patients but rather veterans for who without, we would not have a working society.  Long wait times, inadequate facilities, or lack of providing mental health services is simply unacceptable in this context.  

One possible roadmap for fixing these systemic problems is the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) report issued in 2022 with the following recommendations.  

• Modernizing the VA health care system 

• Ensuring the VA is able to provide care to an ever-changing veteran population including treatment of mental, as well as physical issues 

• Strengthening the VA's role as a leading health care researcher and training institution

The first of these proposals is critical and will require significant funding.  We can find the money of course.  Those making the decision to take out student loans should be expected to pay back the loans of which they are primary, in some cases the sole, beneficiary, yet the Biden administration has given billions to them in free loans.  There are billions being stolen through Medicare and Medicaid fraud. 

As a Reagan conservative I am against larger government. I learned in my business career that throwing money at a problem is rarely successful.  But in the case of the VA we know where the money should go, and how it can help. And in the case of Veterans, this is the obligation of a grateful nation.  Something to be remembered on Veterans Day.  

AD Tippet is the founder and Publisher of the Conservative Historian. Aves has conducted extensive research in Political, Religious, Social, and Educational history across all eras and geographies. He has been writing and podcasting for over 12 years. In 2020, he published his first book, The Conservative Historian. He has degrees in history, education, and an MBA. @BelAves