wounded veterans returning from iraq and afghanistan have been living in appalling conditions and fighting a dysfunctional bureaucracy at the outpatient clinics of this nation s premiere military hospitals. the walter reed neglect scandal revealed that at least part of the veteran s health care system is outrageously underfunded and underperforming, failing to meet the basic standards of decency. president obama came into office with a promise to fix things at the v.a. and fix funding after a bush administration he said had ignored deplorable conditions at some v.a. hospitals and neglected the planning and preparation necessary for to care for our returning heroes. and yet, while backlogs in veterans disability claims have been cut in half over the past year and v.a. funding has increased 38% under president obama, according to the administration, a poll just last year found that 58% of post-9/11 veterans said the v.a. is doing an only fair or poor job of
medicine that found that facilities within this health care system exceeded fee for service medicare on all 11 different quality of care metrics they used to evaluate. that system was the v.a. system. and yet, just two years after longman published that piece came this. wounded veterans returning from iraq and afghanistan have been living in appalling conditions and fighting a dysfunctional bureaucracy at the outpatient clinics of this nation s premiere military hospitals. the walter reed neglect scandal revealed that at least part of the veteran s health care system is outrageously underfunded and underperforming, failing to meet the basic standards of decency. president obama came into office with a promise to fix things at the v.a. and fix funding after a bush administration he said had ignored deplorable conditions at some v.a. hospitals and neglected the planning and preparation necessary for to care for our returning heroes.
affordable care act, if they want to end medicare as we know it and convert it into a voucher program, if they want to slash medicaid and leave millions and millions of people out on the street without any health insurance, it s fair to say these guys are not great fans of public health. i think that s a fair statement. i would argue that in many ways, and according to many studies, despite its problems, v.a. today provides good quality health care in a cost-effective way. i would say to you, senator, i hope republicans either in the senate or the house have the courage or the convictions to introduce legislation to privatize the v.a. and we can see how the voters feel about that. senator bernie sanders, i know where you would be on that. thank you so much. thank you. coming up, 13 years after 9/11, we re still officially, legally a nation at war. who are we at war with? that turns out to be a surprisingly difficult question to get an answer to. richard clark, president george
times or cooking the books, i will not stand for it. not as commander in chief, but also not as an american. none of us should. so if these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and i will not tolerate it, period. the president s strong words coming after a controversy driven by investigative reporting in the arizona republic and elsewhere last month, which appeared to show that not only was the department of medical affairs medical center in phoenix mired in a long backlog with sick veterans waiting a month, even a year to see a doctor, but there was a secret set of books created to hide the fact that administrators were systemically violating the maximum wait time that the v.a. brass ordered for all veterans seeking care. subsequent reporting has revealed similar patterns of alleged misconduct and cover-up in v.a. hospitals from florida
i think that s a fair statement. i would argue that in many ways, and according to many studies, despite its problems, v.a. today provides good quality health care in a cost-effective way. i would say to you, senator, i hope republicans either in the senate or the house have the courage or the convictions to introduce legislation to privatize the v.a. and we can see how the voters feel about that. senator bernie sanders, i know where you would be on that. thank you so much. thank you. coming up, 13 years after 9/11, we re still officially, legally a nation at war. who are we at war with? that turns out to be a surprisingly difficult question to get an answer to. richard clark, president george w. bush s chief counterterrorism adviser will try to help me answer it, next.