304 How the VA “Failed”

The Veterans Administration's healthcare has been lambasted for poor service, which was blamed on “government.” What? Do people think the VA has bad doctors with outdated equipment who are too lazy to do their job? Where did the impression that the VA is a failed boondoggle come from? Well, you need to look deeper than your sanctimony for the real reasons. First, Market Forces-types browbeat the VA to adopt policies that would financially incentivize administrators who used Market techniques that act in a perverse manner when applied to a social function, but that's not the primary reason. The ethos in the military towards the VA is to "get as much as you can get." Everyone is surreptitiously instructed on what to say & encouraged to game the system, with the mentality that veterans deserve it. This attitude is an open secret, and feeds back on itself because doctors in the VA know that a vast majority of the "patients" are faking it so they guess which ones are really sick & put the rest in an endless queue. This worked for decades; the leaches were half-assed shuffled through the system, labeled “disabled” in some manner, and booted out the door with hardly an examination. Unfortunately, from the outside, not knowing what's really happening, this looks like shoddy healthcare, and it is, but it's great service if you're dolling out free money.