Carson: Shutter VA healthcare system

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said on Monday that military veteran care requires such a drastic overhaul, he’ll end the Veterans Health Administration if he wins the White House.

“When it comes to veterans’ care, Americans are rightfully outraged, and can no longer be content with business as usual,” Carson wrote in a USA Today op-ed.

{mosads}“The VA is like the federal version of the Department of Motor Vehicles: inefficient, incompetent and infuriating,” he said. “Except the VA is much worse: at least the DMV’s long wait times do not kill its applicants.”

Carson said his background as a neurosurgeon makes him skeptical that Veteran Affairs can rehabilitate its ailing healthcare system.

“These failures cannot stand,” Carson added. “At a minimum, the Veterans Health Administration should be eliminated to forge a 21st Century veterans health care solution.”

Carson said he is outraged by the agency’s delays, corruption and poor service for former military personnel.

“The astonishing findings of public and private audits have turned out to be much worse than anyone suspected,” Carson wrote.

“Decades of effort and billions of taxpayer dollars have been thrown at ‘fixing’ the VA, and the results have been abysmal,” he said. “The backlog of veterans waiting for treatment or even disability classification is stupendous, and drives them to frustration and even desperation.”

Carson argued on Monday that the VA must increase its speed and efficiency in dealing with veterans’ medical needs.

It must also improve its programs for helping veterans re-enter civilian life, he said.

Carson’s remarks come amid surging enthusiasm for the retired doctor across multiple national polls.

He currently ranks second in the race for next year’s GOP presidential nomination with 16.8 percent, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of samplings.