A blue ribbon panel – a group of exceptional people who is given the task to investigate or study a given question – will be evaluating the “Veterans Affairs Health”. The decision that could be taken might be a little radical; eliminate all the VA medical centers in the next 20 years, and translate about 9 million veterans to private sectors health cares.
About 15 members from the VA Commission on care floated a 34-page “Strawman Document” that calls for giving the veterans private health services immediately, but what is the cost? Closing all VA Health in a gradual way, starting with the oldest – those that are obsolete – just like the base realignment and closure process where one of the administrators stated that the system was seriously broken and therefore there is no efficient path to repair it – sounds like terminal status system.
Commissioner David Blum, CEO and president of OhioHealth System , along with six other members – included from the 15 people committee that integrates this blue ribbon panel – is calling for a complete transformation that might let all veterans choose where they could want to get their health care or to a VA, and also would radically downsize the Veterans Affair Health.
John Goodrich, spokesman of this commission, stated that the proposal was presented past March 21-23th, which caused a “spirited debate” for over 3 days – health is a serious topic that must be debate no matter what.
Also, under this proposal, eight groups of veterans – that included Disable American Veterans, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America – sent a letter to the commission that denounce the “Strawman Document” to Chairwoman Nancy Schlichting.
The letter said that they were greatly alarmed by what the so-called “Strawman document” states, which was later developed and drafted outside an open commission process without the input of knowledge of other commissioners, and what was more unsettling about this document was the utter lack of consideration that veterans would like an improvement of the VA health care system – an improvement is not making a new one, but investing on the old one to cover up veterans’ health needs.
Source: The Arizona Republic