Could VA leadership be the real reason Veteran benefits are getting cut?

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 09:47:09 -0500

With cost overruns and inefficiencies running amuck and a leader that questions a 22 year combat veteran about "what have you done" could it be that funding for VA is being misspent on the system instead of on the veteran?

If you were put in charge of the VA what changes would you make? How would you handle the crisis to better serve our servicemen and women?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/11/vets-group-demands-va-secretary-apologize-for-asking-iraq-war-veteran-what-have-you-done/

Vets Group Demands VA Secretary Apologize for Asking Iraq War Veteran, ‘What Have You Done?’

A key veterans group on Wednesday demanded that Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald apologize for insulting a member of Congress who just happens to be a 22-year Marine Corps veteran. McDonald got the attention of Concerned Veterans for America during the day when he got angry at a...

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 12 at 2015 9:52 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 09:52:55 -0500

It's not just VA leadership but government as a whole. When you have people in power who have NO appreciation for the sacrifice service-members have made then this is what we end up with.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 12 at 2015 9:57 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 09:57:43 -0500

He's a straight up first class buffoon. I don't like to say that but no one says what he said unless they're ignorant, arrogant or just plain an idiot.

Response by SGT Jim Z. made Feb 12 at 2015 9:58 AM

SGT Jim Z. — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 09:58:39 -0500

Although I was not a huge GEN Eric Shinseki fan at least he was there once. In my opinion this guy is an idiot and would love him to ask a room full of veterans that question and not in the safety of Washington D.C.

Response by TSgt Tim (lj) Littlejohn made Feb 12 at 2015 10:05 AM

TSgt Tim (lj) Littlejohn — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 10:05:22 -0500

as it seems he does't know anything about what vets have done, he should resign today!!

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Feb 12 at 2015 10:23 AM

Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 10:23:10 -0500

I personally think the problem with the VA is one of functional vs philosophical roles.

My premise is that the government is a machine. Gears, cogs, wheels, you name it. It functions relatively well in that capacity.

Health Care however is a Social Program. In and of itself that is not a bad thing. However Social Programs are about People.

People & Machines don't mix however. You can't treat people like they are part of a machine. You can't treat them like a line item on a report. You have to treat them like living breathing people.

When a machine is running at 85-95% efficiency, that is good. Great even. We'd be ecstatic that it is performing so well.

However, if our Health Care system is running at 95% efficiency, that means 5% of things are not running well. That's bad. Hugely bad. Frankly unacceptable. 20M Vets (about 8M enrolled in the VA). Using my SWAG (Scientific Wild @ss Guess) numbers of 5% that gives us a "failure" of 400,000 Vets. That's a lot of vets even if the system is working well as a "finely tuned machine." If it's running at "standard" government efficiency of 80%~ you can multiply that number by 4.

Again, these are just SWAG numbers, but if we are failing a number of veterans equal to our current Active Duty force.... something looks hugely wrong, even if the "machine" is efficient.

So what exactly am I getting at? The government is ill equipped, to handle Health Care. We need someone with the right "philosophy" to do it. As long as our government is directly involved, it is going to be treated as "part of the machine" rather than someone who the nation is repaying a debt to.