Comedian Jon Stewart and troops sickened by uranium have ended a meeting at the Department of Veterans Affairs angry that once again they have been told they will have to wait to see whether the VA will connect their illnesses to the toxic base where they were deployed shortly after 9/11.
Just wanted to follow-up on my comment. I was thinking about it today, and I believe ProPublica or some professional journalist or grad school student should engage in a project to study the underlying factors that drive poor VA outcomes. I’m sure it’s been done, but it would be nice to see some more research.
I would be willing to bet there are significant correlation in terms of VA system health outcomes and a range of socioeconomic variables (demographics, voting patterns, etc.).
My hypothesis is that, just like most government outcomes, the most conservative areas also treat veterans the worst and disapprove a shockingly high percentage of disability claims. Having this information in the public domain might influence reforms at the worst-offending VA / VBA systems.