Almost no group in American society is more respected and better cared for than military veterans. Theoretically, that is.

Almost no group in American society is more respected and better cared for than military veterans. Theoretically, that is. The Obama Administration is currently embroiled in a huge scandal involving health care for veterans. The stench from an investigation at a hospital in Phoenix now appears to hover over the whole Veterans Affairs system. The VA Secretary, Eric Shinseki, is under pressure to walk the plank.

It appears that administrators have been cooking the books to make it appear that veterans received medical care quickly and efficiently. In fact, veterans seeking care at the hospital in Phoenix had to wait an average of 115 days. There are fears that some might have died, although no evidence of this has emerged.

“While our work is not complete, we have substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality of care at this medical facility,” says the author of a preliminary report into the scandal. It found that “inappropriate scheduling practices are systemic throughout” the Veterans Affairs health care system across the United States.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s summary of the scandal.

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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