On Veterans Day, our thoughts turn to somber gratitude. The many freedoms we revere — such as the freedom of expression we are exercising in this very space today — are protected and preserved by our military men and women.
We thank them for their service and their sacrifice.
And we urge our nation to treat them better. While history has always proven the valor of America’s military, it too often has proven America’s failure to care for them.
Hardly a presidential administration goes by without some glaring fault when it comes to veterans’ affairs. Two in the past decade leap immediately to mind.
In 2007, under Republican President George W. Bush, it was the scandal of alleged neglect focusing on Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It called into question the entire health care system for veterans. The medical center’s commander was fired. The person who preceded him was forced into retirement. The secretary of the Army resigned.
Politicians talked. Reforms were made.
This year, under Democratic President Barack Obama, it has been the scandal of alleged neglect focusing on the Phoenix VA hospital. It has called into question the entire health care system for veterans. Three high-ranking officials at the Phoenix facility are on leave while they appeal the decision to fire them. Another high-ranking executive was fired. Two others retired. The scandal led to the ouster of former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and, as the Associated Press puts it, “a new law making it easier for veterans to get VA-paid care from local doctors.”
Politicians are talking. And reforms are being made.
On Monday, the VA revealed a reorganization aimed at making it easier for veterans to access the department’s services and basket full of websites.
VA Secretary Robert McDonald, according to the AP report, called the restructuring the largest in the department’s history and said it will bring a singular focus on customer service to an agency that serves 22 million veterans.
For starters, the VA will hire a chief customer service officer and simplify the way it is organized to deliver health care and other services. The VA now has nine separate regional structures of varying size and at least a dozen websites, the AP reports, many with their own user names and passwords.
This reorganization, to be called “MyVA,” is designed to provide veterans with “a seamless, integrated and responsive customer service experience — whether they arrive at VA digitally, by phone or in person,” McDonald said.
In general, McDonald promised a new day for the VA.
“As VA moves forward, we will judge the success of all our efforts against a single metric: the outcomes we provide for veterans,” McDonald said. The VA’s mission is to care for veterans, “so we must become more focused on veterans’ needs.”
Well, yes. That’s why the VA exists.
A nation that is willing to send young men and women into harm’s way must be willing to care for them, to the best of its ability, when their service is over.
Our veterans deserve better than what they’ve been getting.