Jack Kemp forwards this:

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/02/time_to_get_the_va_out_of_medical_care_delivery.html

February 5, 2017
Time to Get the VA Out of Medical Care Delivery
By Mike Ford
To all my fellow veterans, I'm about to tip a sacred cow here. I would ask that for the sake of our many fellow warriors who need relief ASAP, please read this with an open mind and a willingness to offer tweaks, embellishments or outright different approaches:
Many of us can agree that the Veterans Administration has done a less-than-stellar job in delivering timely, high-quality and cost-effective medical care, especially when it comes to "wait times," for veterans injured serving this great nation. However, there is one piece of good news in this situation: The American public is outraged and sincerely wants to help. This gives us a window of opportunity and leverage to achieve major changes, something historically, very difficult to do in the D.C. bureaucracy.
An intermediate solution now in place, has its own issues. In response to the public furor over Veterans' Health Care, the Obama Administration initiated the "Veterans Choice" initiative, which allows Veterans to seek service outside the VA, if there is expected to be a long wait period for internal service. A longtime friend and fellow vet wrote the following about this:
If you are considering Veterans Choice with the VA, think long and hard. I am out and here is why.
1. Referrals: The system is totally broken. Requests for referrals are sent by the primary care VA choice doctor to the VA, and then supposedly approved and placed in your file so you can schedule an appointment.
I had one sent in October, never happened. Then I got the actual phone number for the person who should have approved it. I called and reached her. She approved and said the referral would be in my file the next day. Two weeks later, still no joy.
2. Primary care VA choice doctor: I had 24 visits approved for him as just a regular doctor. I made an appointment for Friday and was told he dropped out of the program. The reason was he never got paid.

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