Anyone questioning the efficacy of nationalized medicine need look no further than the
Veterans Administration to realize it doesn’t work, according to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
"When you talk about healthcare and the delivery of healthcare and a Washington centric healthcare, you want to know whether or not nationalized healthcare works, go ask a veteran and they will tell you that by and large it doesn’t," Perry said Thursday on "America’s Forum" on
Newsmax TV.
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In April,
CNN reported that at least 40 veterans died while waiting for care. The veterans had been placed on secret waiting lists designed to conceal the months- and years-long wait times to see a doctor.
It was later revealed that the lists were common practice within the VA health system, which awarded bonuses to administrators based on providing expeditious care.
President Barack Obama appointed Robert McDonald as VA secretary following the resignation of the former secretary, Eric Shinseki.
Perry praised McDonald’s appointment, a man he said he knows and respects. McDonald is a West Point graduate and a former CEO of Procter and Gamble.
"If he's given the authority and the resources, he can get the VA headed in the right direction," Perry said. "But it's going to be a big project.
"And I will suggest to you, a lot of the solutions dealing with the VA are to be to privatize, to allow those veterans to be able to get that healthcare at their local clinics rather than having to travel in some cases hundreds of miles."
The United States has a duty to its veterans, he said.
"We made a promise to men and women that held up their hand and took the oath to defend this country up to and including the loss of their lives," Perry said. "And we said that we were going to take care of them and we were going to take care of their families, and we have failed."
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