Comparing Waiting Lines at Disney and VA is Assinine

Can you believe the audacity of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald? He compared waiting in long lines at Disney’s Magic Kingdom to waiting for healthcare service at a Veterans Administration healthcare facility. He in fact stated, “it was unfair to evaluate the VA based on the length of time a veteran registers and actually sees a doctor.” Is he kidding me? Does anyone in their right mind truly suppose that Disney, in reality, measures the number of hours it’s patrons wait in line? In essence, McDonald is saying, it isn't hurting the Disney paying public to wait in line, thus it does not hurt the VA patient in need of health care to wait in line.  Without question I think his choice of analogies was unpardonable. Is not the VA an organization that is there to provide health care for our nation’s veterans? To compare waiting for a doctor’s appointment, where your life may be in balance to a wait in line for a thrill ride or a hot dog at a theme park appalling.

Now I ask the reader, has anybody died waiting in line at Disney? Well, maybe a few over the years, but not many. There is plenty of evidence that many more than a few veterans have actually died waiting to be seen at a VA facility. Is this not health care we’re talking about? This is not entertainment. Do not our Veterans Administration management team know how important waiting time is? 

Some would argue that a veteran’s experience with the VA should matter more than the statistics. Let me tell you from a VA patient’s view, it’s hard to have an experience until you can get an appointment. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon or a VA bureaucrat to know timely appointments often catch medical problems early and lead to more effective treatment.

Ever try calling VA for a medical appointment? If nothing else, try it for entertainment. If a veteran calls the VA, they can dial ‘1’ for the pharmacy, dial ‘2’ for the clinic, but if you want to talk with a mental health specialist because it’s an emergency and you’re thinking of “doing yourself in”, you’ve got to hang up and dial a 10-digit number. And, they can’t fix that? Does this come as a surprise? If it does, the reader is in for a reality check. The ongoing complaints prove the problems have not been solved. It should come as no surprise, given the immense bureaucracy and the fact very few people lost their jobs over the initial VA scandals.

One of the VA solutions to long wait times was the infamous "Choice Card." Some appointed VA healthcare brainpan suggested it. Let me clue you in on VA’s treatment of veterans with "Choice Cards." Through personal experience, I have discovered the very same thing with respect to the bureaucratic red tape enforced by the VA, everything, to include the "Choice Card" involves lengthy wait times from approval to appointment.

In my biased opinion, the VA should be concentrating on the nuts and bolts of solving the problems that they have at the VA, not making excuses and comparing it to the Magic Kingdom. What happens in the world of  Disney is fantasy accompanied by sounds of joy and laughter. What transpires within the VA health system is reality, accompanied by cries of anguish at the needless, avoidable suffering and death of an American veteran.