VA Hospital ..aka Government Run Healthcare

My dad is a Vietnam Veteran ...he has been going to the VA Hospital since May for a hernia. He could possibly have Prostate Cancer...as of yet, the VA Hospital has not performed hernia surgery nor taken a biopsy to check for cancer. Really ticks me off...in fact, I have written a letter and sent it to my Congresswoman, Virginia Foxx and three newspapers....the letter is as follows:

I know a man who was a soldier. Four years of his life was given to his country as he served in the US Navy. He was active in the Vietnam War. On board a submarine, he cracked Morse codes sent by the adversary. He was an asset to our country. He was efficient, intelligent, and competent.

I know a man who is a soldier. His adversary is his current health. He has had a hernia since May of 2009. "Why in the world", you ask, "doesn't he just have surgery?" It's a common procedure. The answer lies with those providing his healthcare....the VA Hospital, a government run healthcare. Not only has he awakened every day for three months with this painful annoyance, but the idea has been given him that he may have prostate cancer. Granted this is a slow-growing cancer, but to have this question toying with you daily and to have nothing done about it is unthinkable. The hospital has repeatedly put him off and strung him along. It is simply unacceptable.

The soldier who was and is happens to be my dad. I cannot sit by and abide the negligence. It is inexcusable. In my sharing of this story, a lady confided that her grandfather was "treated" by the VA. He had cancer. The VA let it progress to such a state without treatment, that two weeks after telling him, he passed away. It is shameful that a man would give years of his life in service to his country and then be sent to an early grave through neglect of that same country. And this is not an isolated event. The stories are numerous. To lose a loved one is a burden unlike an other; to lose someone with the knowledge that it could have been prevented is atrocious.

Before our current president endeavors to push a nation wide government run health care, perhaps he should take a closer look at the one currently in place. From all I have seen, government run health care = no competition = no strive for excellence = patient neglect. My dad is a soldier. He will not whine or demand out of self-respect. However, I remain indignant about my dad's care and would very much like to see a change. God forbid he has a cancer that becomes serious because of the lack of respect from the country he so willingly served. Let us heed the words of Calvin Coolidge, "A nation that forgets its heroes is a nation destined to be forgotten".