Let’s take care of our own, and lay claim to what we need, and let’s get some of it from those we have supported for so long.

Now we will see if all of the Congressional posturing over the past couple of weeks about supporting our troops will be supported with long term action. Support DOD and VA hospital budgets through adequate funding, including enough monies to attract top level doctors and managers to the DOD and VA hospitals. Provide minimum level of care guidelines that stretch our capabilities, but are measurable, so that “adequate care” is not a moving target impossible to hit by ever-wandering congressional standards. Congressional visits to our hospitals should be a routine occurrence, not an infrequent grip-and-grin for PR reasons.

Sincere Congressional involvement, combined with firm standards of care, and adequate budgets would go a long way in stabilizing the slipping state of DOD and VA health care.

For the social program pushing Dems and MSM, this is what non-competition, governmental, BIG medicine can become…even in the best intentioned facilities. This is the harbinger of a national health care system, and the by-product of a non-competitive industry. Without competition or incentives to improve, public medicine will spiral into complacency, just as the staff at Walter Reed did.

Of course the Dems and the MSM will be pleased with themselves, as all citizens will now be covered by health insurance, regardless of how mediocre it becomes. New, BIG medicine will easily evolve into an endless source of “investigative reports” and Congressional hearings. They will forever be able to uncover zillions of shortcomings effortlessly found in under funded systems, and unwieldy organizations; leaving only a trail of exasperated, yet well-intentioned public servants in the wake of their near-continuous stream of “fact-finding” activity.

If you want to see what universal, government backed health care will look like, or worse…look at Walter Reed. The administrative latitude that the services have in accomplishing their mission is unparalleled in the civilian world…if they struggle, you can bet that big, government managed systems will struggle far worse, with many more grievous examples of sub-standard care than will be found at Walter Reed. Congressional dictum cannot “will” mammoth systems to function effectively or efficiently, and such systems will only become self-licking ice cream cones for the left and the MSM…an endless source for malpractice investigations and Congressional windbagging.

The legacy of Walter Reed’s failings will be the imprint that their malfeasance has left on our injured troops; our diminished confidence in our services’ ability to set and sort priorities; and the congressionally mandated overhaul which the VA and military medical systems will certainly undergo in short order.

But the true lesson of Walter Reed, is that monstrously large medical systems are not easily managed, and a lack of competition breeds complacency…this is a preview of a national health care system, and it will not be an Oscar winner.