Legion participates in Obama roundtable

Angel Juarez, adjutant for The American Legion’s Department of Arizona, met with President Barack Obama at a March 13 roundtable discussion held at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix.

Juarez was one of four representatives from veterans service organizations who attended the meeting.

The president was accompanied by Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald, VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson and Carolyn Clancy, VA’s interim under secretary for health.

During the meeting, Obama announced the creation of an advisory committee to help improve service and treatment at VA medical centers. “If this advisory committee is allowed to come together regularly enough,” Juarez said, “and their advice is acted on, I think good things are going to come from it.”

The VA facility in Phoenix is the so-called ‘epicenter’ of the scandal last year that exposed a system of secret waiting lists at VA hospitals nationwide. Some veterans on these lists, kept waiting months or even years for medical appointments, died while waiting for treatment.

On April 23, 2014, CNN reported that at least 40 veterans had died while waiting for medical appointments at the Phoenix VA Health Care System. Less than two weeks later, The American Legion called for the resignation of then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki; he resigned on May 30, 2014.

Since then, Juarez said, the situation has improved for VA patients in Phoenix. “There are also a whole lot of people who come to me on a regular basis and talk about how their service is great.”