VA bureaucrats to America: you're next: the Veterans Administration scandal provides "a portent of what is to come for American families under ObamaCare when its full impact hits after the 2016 elections....".

• Author: Vliet, Elizabeth Lee
• Position: Medicine & Health

THE VA has many truly dedicated doctors, nurses, and health professionals who do their genuine best to serve America's veterans. Their conscientious work and commitment under difficult conditions--often in a culture of fear and intimidation if they identify problems--is to be saluted. News headlines since the Phoenix, Ariz., scandal first broke, however, clearly show a dark underbelly in the Veterans Administration that is the antithesis of dedication to patients. It speaks of a "Code of Corruption," not the military's Code of Honor.

The U.S. military has an admirable code of ethics: duty, honor, sacrifice. Our soldiers, holding themselves to these standards, trusted that the country they served also would honor its commitment to them for medical care when needed. Now we see VA bureaucrats, administrators, and politicians, whose only "Code" seems to be the opposite of the military ethos: lie, cover up, cheat to protect my income at all costs--even if veterans die while I cook the books.

Headlines tell the story:

* "Wait-List Fraud Found at 64% of VA Facilities"

* "VA Denies Coverage for U.S. Air Force Veteran with Malignant Brain Tumor"

* "Report Confirms 1,700 Vets Seeking Care Were Not on Official Wait List at Phoenix VA, Wait Times for Others Averaged 115 days"

* "Deaths at Phoenix VA Hospital May Be Tied to Delayed Care"

The VA seemingly has become a Machiavellian extension of the very battlefields veterans thought they were leaving when they came home. Today's whistleblowers describe callousness, deceit, greed, nest-feathering, denial of proper care, and outright malevolence at multiple VA hospitals.

Corrupt, self-interested actions are common in government-run systems that have no accountability and little oversight. Good employees who want to speak out are threatened with job loss and career damage. Not everyone has been silenced by the intimidation, though, as courageous whistleblowers have come forward, providing a portent of what is to come for American families under ObamaCare when its full impact hits after the 2016 elections:

* In Phoenix, 58 veterans died while waiting to see a doctor; 1,700 were confirmed to be on a secret waiting list; and others' average wait times were almost four months. Yet, the hospital administrator was paid a $9,000 bonus for her "quality outcomes."

* Falsified records about wait times have been reported in Ft. Collins, Colo.; Albuquerque, N.M.; the Texas cities of San Antonio and Austin; Chicago...