Sen. Coburn: Don't reward VA for failing
Too many men and women who bravely fought for our freedom are losing their lives, not at the hands of enemy combatants, but from neglect by the very government agency established to take care of them.
Failing to provide timely access to medical care, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been covering up the excessive wait times vets must endure to see a doctor. It has also withheld the outcomes of the medial care provided and wasted billions of dollars as a result of mismanagement.
After the needless deaths of hundreds of veterans from long waits and botched care, Congress reacted by writing a bill that would grant those who fought for our freedom the freedom to choose their own doctors.
The bad news for veterans is that little at the VA will change if the House-Senate conference agreement becomes law.
In typical Washington fashion, instead of making the agency more transparent and accountable, Congress is rewarding the department for its failures with a $16 billion bonus.
The problems plaguing the VA, which boasts the second largest budget in the federal government and ends every year with billions of unspent dollars, are not the result of a lack of funds.
The bill would add thousands of new employees, but would do nothing to achieve better quality of care. The VA has hired 40% more physicians, far outpacing growth in the number of patients using the system.
VA physicians who see far fewer patients than their private-sector counterparts, but receive similar compensation, are being paid for doing less work.
It is true, as a result of this bill, some veterans facing long delays or who live far from VA facilities would no longer have to wait or do battle with bureaucracy to see a doctor.
Rare bipartisan unity to quickly pass a bill before Congress recesses for the summer was made possible by borrowing billions of dollars and election-year politics.
Ultimately, the VA suffers from the same problem as Congress: too much money and not enough leadership.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is a physician and the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.