Federal lawmakers discuss the Department of Veterans Affairs budget during a congressional hearing on March 4. (Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
During my orthopedic surgeon training, I worked at three different Veterans Affairs hospitals. I enjoyed working with veterans, but these VA hospitals were horribly inefficient and wasteful.
Want to see what a single-payer health care system would look like? Go to a VA hospital and watch as veterans wait months to see a provider, wait months or years to have surgery, and sadly end up with substandard care.
Today, I appreciate working in non-VA hospitals where staff are motivated to provide the best of care to patients and do so in an efficient and timely fashion.
Veterans deserve the highest level of care, while taxpayers deserve a government that spends their hard-earned dollars wisely. The VA health care system should be shut down, and veterans provided with Cadillac health care plans free of charge. This would result in huge savings while providing vets with great care.
Rick Cunningham, M.D.,Edwards
This letter was published in the March 25 edition.
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