Steve Kurlander: VA’s problems will spread to the entire health-care system

Last week, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki took the public-relations bullet for President Obama in an attempt to ease the damage of the growing VA scandal.

VA officials have routinely hid months-long wait times that veterans faced when seeking care at VA facilities across the nation.

Shinseki ended his five-year stint at the VA and an otherwise brilliant military career after a VA inspector general report found that as many as 42 veterans facilities may have been falsifying patient records to cover up long waits for some veterans seeking care.

In Phoenix, the Inspector General found that about 1,700 veterans were not included in reports about waiting lists and that the average time at the Arizona facility was at least 115 days for first appointments.

In the end, Shinseki succumbed to growing pressure from more than 100 members of Congress of both parties to resign over the systemic failure that reportedly caused inexcusable deaths. The VA chief had already apologized for trusting subordinates and accepting reports that were false.

Announcing Shinseki’s resignation, Obama stated that the 71-year-old retired Army general told him that he did not want to be a distraction while the administration tries to address the problem.

Although GOP leaders attempted to keep the issue alive (“One personnel change cannot be used as an excuse to paper over a systemic problem,” House Speaker John Boehner said), Shinseki’s resignation and the swap of an American POW for Taliban leaders have cooled the media focus on the VA.

Nonetheless, delivery of health services at the VA portends a bad future for all Americans seeking health care.

This scandal is just the latest example of how for decades the federal government has failed to deliver free high quality health care to many veterans who use VA facilities.

The problem has always been that the VA health care system does not have enough money to properly attend to the health-care needs of veterans.

Remember in 2007, when the Washington Post revealed the shocking conditions at Walter Reed VA hospital? It was filthy and many injured soldiers were neglected.

In fact, veterans have endured inadequate health care at most VA facilities since the system was established in 1930.  And now, the private-care model that was a good alternative before is disappearing.

With over 10 million new Americans signing up for insurance through Obamacare and baby boomers requiring more care as they age, it’s only a matter of time before more and more Americans begin enduring long waits, bad care, and falsified reporting.

If Obama and congressional leaders truly want to transform health care into an efficient and effective single-payer system, they should use the reform of the VA system as a model.

Time has run out not just for the VA, but for the entire overburdened American health-care system.

Steven Kurlander blogs at Kurly’s Kommentary (stevenkurlander.com) and writes for Context Florida and The Huffington Post and can be found on Twitter @Kurlykomments. He lives in Monticello, N.Y. Column courtesy of Context Florida.