A report of several Veteran's Care facilities in Phoenix, recently released, showed a quite upsetting trend of veterans not being treated, extremely lengthy wait times, and clerks meddling with official paperwork--hiding the dangerous realities of the lack of appropriate care. A shocking number of veterans died while waiting for treatment. There were "secret waiting lists" which hid the fact, and some veterans were put on waiting lists even with critical conditions. The "scheduling issues" are causing deaths and controversy. What is more disturbing is that Phoenix is not the only place with such issues, this trend is national.
To relate this article to class material, Locke speaks of the certain inalienable rights of man, among these are life, liberty, property, limb. The Veterans' Association is a government program. People give up certain liberties in order to have the safety, protection, and assistance that government provides in maintaining a thriving society. Locke argues that the duty of the government is to preserve these rights, and to act according to the will of the people, who give the government its authority to act. In this particular instance, the government has failed to preserve the rights to limb and life for these veterans seeking medical aide. Many veterans died who may not have, if they had faster care. Yes, there are other institutions from which they could receive care, however, this program was directly established for the benefit of veterans, and I believe that veterans do have a right to expect appropriate and prompt care from the program specifically in existence for the benefit of veterans. The real question is, would those veterans have died had they received prompter care?, or were they near death anyway, so would sooner scheduling not have helped? I do not think it is a coincidence that veterans died while waiting for care. The whole point of receiving care is to help with medical issues. For the Veterans' Association, this is a black mark on a program developed to provide assistance, for them to be so sluggish in the care of those who need help, and rely on them for it, they are not fulfilling their duty, to help and protect the people. Yes, it is hard to treat thousands upon thousands of aging veterans, but the response was entirely inappropriate considering the situation faced. The Veterans' Association's 16 billion overhaul was warranted. There needs to be serious reform in that particular governmental program.
