Veterans

"I'M WORRIED ABOUT IF IT'S THIS BAD AT THE OUTPATIENT FACILITIES AT WALTER REED (MEDICAL CENTER), HOW IS IT IN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY? BECAUSE WALTER REED IS OUR CROWN JEWEL"

US SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER (DEMOCRAT-NEW YORK)

This quote highlights what is probably the first time that Senator Schumer and I have agreed on an issue but I fear our solutions to the problem will not be the same. As I have written before -- we need to phase out the US Veterans Administration medical system (see February 15th posting here, "Health Care Apartheid" - http://spacebeaglenotes.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html) based on the bureaucratic troubles that I saw my grandfather experience over multiple years. His service in World War II in Europe seemed easier than completing the necessary V.A. paperwork for treatment!!

Sadly the poor quality of medical care for our veterans doesn't just exist at the federal level since in my State of Minnesota our governor made headlines last week, "Pawlenty shakes up state veterans home", due to three deaths that occurred in January.

Given the mis-management of these medial facilities which is a complete insult to our military veterans I want to offer this multi-step plan to improve the situation:

• Eliminate the Veterans Administration medical system and sell all of their buildings especially Walter Reed in Washington DC which could help provide a much-needed fresh supply of housing given the high cost of real estate today.
• Distribute the revenue/tax savings from the closing/divestiture of V.A. assets to all veterans via Health Savings Accounts ( http://www.hsainsider.com/) so our veterans can select what health care providers they want.
• Sell all the veterans' homes in the State of Minnesota -- Minneapolis, Luverne, Silver Bay, Hastings, and Fergus Falls -- to the private sector since a five location system like this should be attractive to a current nursing home corporation.
• Once the V.A. facilities and the Minnesota veterans' homes are closed provide as much care as logistics allow for veterans by having them become patients of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, http://www.mayoclinic.org/ which has locations in Minnesota, Florida, and Arizona.

The squalid conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center are a slap in the face to our military veterans. We need to completely rethink how we care for our veterans -- such as the idea to give each of them a Health Savings Account -- versus "federalizing" the system even more like we saw done with airport security via the conversion of private security workers into federal government employees called the Transportation Security Administration.

Choice not paperwork,

Todd