Much ado has been made in the media about the length of time it takes to get an appointment at some Veteran’s Administration hospitals.

I have a somewhat jaundiced view of the furor. Over the years I have watched as the VA has struggled for funding to stay current with programs and services it offers those of us who have served in the military. Not too many years ago Congress decided it was too expensive for the VA to keep its promises to provide veterans with healthcare for life and made many veterans move into the Medicare system with VA as a supplement.

Congress didn’t want to adequately fund the VA back then so the nation could keep its promises and still doesn’t, even as thousands more veterans suffer debilitating wounds that would have meant their deaths in Vietnam, Korea, World War II and so on. To provide services for these veterans will be even more expensive for the VA, and once again Congress doesn’t want to provide the funds. It had rather keep taxes low on the wealthy who have gained the most from veterans’ sacrifices.

Now the cry is instead of funding the VA, let’s toss veterans into the civilian system, itself short of doctors and other healthcare professionals. What the politicians aren’t telling you is their real reason for wanting to shift veterans to the civilian sector and that’s all the money doctors can give to them – uh, make that to their campaign funds, the legal repository for monetary kickbacks. Government agencies and their employees are barred from giving money to politicians.

Now get this, because the politicians control their pay. Where does the money come from for the legal kickbacks to campaign war chests if it isn’t from the funds the politicians direct towards that so-called private sector?

Contrary to what the politicians say, who are seeking more ways they can to collect kickbacks for campaign war chests, the least expensive, most efficient and most comprehensive way to provide veterans with benefits they earned is through the Veterans Administration, when that agency is adequately funded, which it almost never is.

By the way, those healthcare professionals the politicians are trying to bribe with veteran’s benefits money have become suspicious of those politicians. The politicians keep cutting their reimbursement amounts for treating patients through Medicare and other government health programs to the point that many doctors and hospitals no longer accept patients whose payments for healthcare received comes from government.

Do you – or they – really think it will be any different for veterans seeking healthcare in the private sector?

I expect that if the politicians are successful in dismantling the VA, we will see more sick, homeless veterans on our streets.

Don’t trust politicians who tell you the private sector is the way to go when there is a government program sitting there seeking to meet needs, but which is underfunded as the politicians seek more money in the way of kickbacks to their campaign funds – by directing the money needed by the program to the private sector.