This PBS-aired documentary from Emmy Award-winner Ric Burns details the history and ongoing challenges facing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the second largest agency in the federal government. Founded in 1930 as the Veterans Administration—through the consolidation of overlapping agencies—and elevated to a Cabinet-level Executive Branch department in 1989, the VA has been burdened over the years by inadequate budgeting, political agendas, and a chronic inability to properly address the physical and mental health needs of the nation’s wounded warriors. Wait lists for veterans seeking medical aid is touched upon through first-person accounts that present the VA as incompetent in addressing sensitive issues, and the film also briefly examines the tragically high rates of veteran suicide (concentrating on one particularly horrific example), although there is no mention here of the current debate about enabling privatized health care as an alternative for veterans who are unhappy with the VA’s operations. Interviewees include Dr. David J. Shulkin, the Obama-era Secretary of Veterans Affairs official who stayed on with the Trump administration but was fired in 2018. Although too short to effectively explore the many questions it raises, this documentary would serve as a starting point for viewers to delve further into the subject. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
VA: The Human Cost of War
(2017) 60 min. DVD: $24.99 ($54.99 w/PPR). PBS Video. SDH captioned. ISBN: 978-1-5317-0371-4. Volume 33, Issue 4
VA: The Human Cost of War
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