The Patriot Post® · McDonald Heads VA

Former CEO of Proctor & Gamble Bob McDonald took the helm of the Veteran Affairs health care system. Hopefully, coming from 33 years in the private sector, McDonald will run the VA like a business, with serving customers (veterans) as the goal of the organization. However, columnist Ed Morrissey echoed something we’ve long said: “McDonald will have an arguably more difficult task at the VA, though, because the root of the problem is the VA itself. Its single-payer system creates incentives that have everything to do with protecting bureaucracies and nothing to do with customer service. McDonald comes from a company that operates in highly-competitive markets, where customer service and quality are make-or-break points for organizational survival. Boehner’s correct that McDonald can’t come in with a mission to just clean up the current system, and more to the point, he’s the wrong choice for that kind of mission anyway.” To fix the problem completely, veterans need the choice to seek health care elsewhere, creating competition in the system. More…