Sneezes and Soldiers


I invite you to intuit the connection between common springtime allergies and the problems facing the Veteran Administration following the scandalous revelations of awful treatment while reporting stellar performance in health care delivery to our nation's soldiers. As one of millions of allergy sufferers I feel qualified to attest to the disruption of my daily life caused by pollens, grasses and molds that float through the air. But the inconveniences of itchy eyes, stuffy noses, and persistent sleepiness pale in comparison to the failure to provide necessary medical treatment that has been denied to so many veterans.

I have used three approaches to deal with my allergies. I have sought medical advice to find prescription medication to treat my symptoms. I have experimented with over-the-counter medications to find something that works. And I have just dealt with it, sometimes utilizing home remedies like neti pots. Most of the time, both the doctors and I are guessing about what will work. No doctor has yet prescribed an effective medication the first time. They start with some free samples and ask me to assess which works the best and then when I report back they write a prescription for that medication.

Unfortunately, I have not yet found a medication that relieves my symptoms and doesn't leave me feeling groggy and lost. So I turn to non-prescription options and begin my own guessing game and experiment. As soon as I think I have the solution, the symptoms return with what seems like a tremendous vengeance. And these over-the-counter drugs tend to function the same as the prescription options, they either cause me to feel drowsy and out of it or they don't diminish my symptoms in any meaningful way. Sadly, I'm not consistent enough with home remedies to have a valid opinion.

So what does all of this allergy talk have to do with the Veterans Administration? It's really quite simple. Everyone knows there is a problem. In fact I think most people are not surprised to hear about problems in delivering quality health care to our veterans. We may be somewhat taken aback by the scope of the problem, but really, did anyone think that the number of veterans around could possibly be treated in a timely manner with the number of physicians who can provide care to them? The numbers don't add up. Like my allergies there is no dispute that we have a problem.

But what are the remedies we select? Today President Obama accepted the resignation of Eric Shinseki. I am compelled to ask, does this resignation, and the cries for it that came in the weeks and days before, do anything to treat the actual problem? Or are we just guessing and throwing out random ideas in the hopes that some action will solve the problem? I fear that our actions without truly understanding the underlying problem will either not treat the principal symptoms or will simply leave us completely dazed and confused.

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