So Eric Shinseki is now out as secretary of Veterans Affairs. Unfortunately, the scandalous VA hospitals remain.
Shinseki had to go. The unconscionable wait lists and coverups occurred on his watch. An ex-Army general, Shinseki knows accountability sometimes means falling on your sword, especially after the release of a preliminary inspector general’s report showing the coverups were more “systemic” than he’d admitted. Worse, Team Obama knew these problems when it took office.
But please, let’s not pretend Shinseki’s scalp will fix the maltreatment of vets or the institutional corruption. Because the root of this problem is not simply bad management. It’s government-provided health care.
The answer is to replace this fat, free-spending and unaccountable bureaucracy with vouchers veterans can use anywhere, not just at government hospitals. It’s not as radical as it seems. When Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act in 1944, for example, it didn’t set up separate colleges for veterans. Instead, it gave them tuition to go to the colleges of their own choosing.
The result was that millions of servicemen and servicewomen earned college degrees that would not otherwise have been within their reach. Why not give our men and women who have served in uniform the same control over their health care. Because until we do, it doesn’t really matter much who the secretary of Veterans Affairs is.