18 Jul 2014 VA’s Problem: “Bureaucrats Will Take Care of Bureaucrats”

Discussing the Department of Veterans Affairs crisis, National Center policy analyst David Hogberg said the simple diagnosis of veterans’ health care ills is that “bureaucrats will take care of bureaucrats.”

On the 7/10/14 edition of the “Rick Amato Show” on the One America Network, David pointed out that the government-run and taxpayer-funded Veterans Health Administration system simply does not have the incentives to promote quality in a manner that is expected of private health care systems or any other private institution.  He said the “customers… the veterans… do not actually control the funding,” and that there is no pressure on staff because there is no real competition.

Asked about an excuse for VA facilities being overrun due to unexpected demographic shifts in veteran populations to southern retirement communities, David said his research and reports by the government do not bear out this excuse — “the data does not support it.”  He said there have been equal numbers of poorly-functioning VA centers found in the north and Sun Belt regions.