As the American people prep for another election this year, one of the main policy issues that remains at the forefront is that of healthcare.
For years, politicians in Washington have promised the American people a healthcare system that works for them. However, that is seemingly not the case.
While the focus on an issue that is important to millions of Americans is admirable, politicians in the swamp consistently fail to see that the government being involved in healthcare has been tried and failed in America. Just look at the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
While the VA’s initiatives and goals of providing quality health insurance and care to vets are well-intended, the results have been disastrous, to say the least.
In 2015, a Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general issued a report that found that more than 300,000 veterans died while waiting for care and that more than twice as many were still awaiting care.
The report noted how there were a grave number of problems involving record-keeping and enrollment data. It was impossible to determine which veterans were seeking care and which already had access to it.
At the time, Linda Halliday, the VA's acting inspector general, stated that the agency's Health Eligibility Center "has not effectively managed its business processes to ensure the consistent creation and maintenance of essential data." This demonstrated a government-run healthcare system in complete chaos.
Wait times at the VA have consistently been an issue for the department. According to a 2017 audit from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), among the sampled group studied, the average wait time to receive care was 53 days.
These wait times have proven devastating to patients trying to receive care for serious medical issues, especially when it comes to mental health and suicide prevention.
In September 2016, the Associated Press reported that an astonishing 35-40 percent of calls in May 2016 to the VA’s Veterans Crisis Line rolled over and went unanswered.
Greg Hughes, the former director of the hotline, stated that some crisis line staffers “spend very little time on the phone or engaged in assigned productive activity.”
Veterans committing suicide has been an epidemic for years. According to the 2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, most recent data from 2017 shows that an average of 16.8 veterans take their lives every day, an increase from the 2005 average of 15.9.
The report also found that from 2006-2017, over 6,000 veterans have committed suicide every year and that the suicide rate for veterans was 1.5 times higher than that of that of a non-Veteran adult.
By calling a Convention of States, our veterans and all Americans will have more control over their healthcare decisions.
A COS will allow us to limit federal overreach and finally get the government out of the healthcare system so the American people can have greater jurisdiction in choosing and obtaining healthcare that best suits them.
So while a government-run healthcare system may sound compassionate, the results of such policy are the exact opposite of compassion.
If our government can’t take care of our nation’s finest, then how could they ever take care of the 320+ million other citizens living in America?
Let your state legislators know you want them to call a Convention of States by signing our petition.
