Retired Colonel Talks VA Problems
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As the three day Memorial Day weekend unfolds, many remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to serve our country.
But a shadow lingers over this year’s holiday, as the Department of Veterans Affairs finds itself in hot water.
Critics say veterans are waiting and even dying to get health care at some VA hospitals. This is just coming to light now, but veterans say this has been going on for decades.
Veterans aren’t getting health care in a timely fashion and retired Air Force Colonel Bob Taffet says the country is finally paying attention. Taffet flew fighter jets for 23 years. After retiring, he says his VA nightmare began.
“My first exposure is when I retired in 1989 and we had to go to the VA and the VA would evaluate you and give you a certain percentage for disability, if you qualified that way, and I waited and waited and finally it was resolved in 1992.
And he says since that time, the wait times have gotten worse.
” What it is is the fact that there are so many people and you don’t have enough administration that handles the different caseloads and you can get to the point of complete saturation.
U.S. Representative Martha Roby says the negligence of the Department of Veterans Affairs is a national outrage. She’s calling for the firing of Eric Shinseki, the Veterans Affairs Secretary and is working on a bill to that will do that.
“I mean what does it take to get someone from the Obama Administration fired?” she questions. “This bill removes legal barriers for swiftly firing senior level VA bureaucrats who aren’t getting the job done.”
But Taffet says he doesn’t believe it should all be on Shinseki.
“They’re all talking about, let’s take the top and cut the head off. That’s not where the problem is. The problem is at the hospital level, that’s where you need to look and see who needs to be fired.”
And he says he believes it’s time to do away with the VA hospital altogether.
“We might be better off. Go ahead and put them in with the regular hospitals, the regular clinics that are around the United States.”
Taffet Recently had open heart surgery. He says he did not go to a VA hospital, not because they don’t have qualified surgeons, but because he couldn’t wait to get it done.
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