Missoulian Sam Redfern is paying particularly close attention to the ongoing Veterans Administration hearings. VA officials are holding meetings nationwide to address questions about scheduling problems, long waits and other problems facing veterans seeking care from the VA system.
"Three quarters of all VA facilities in the country are cooking the books, are manipulating scheduling, to the point where they're turning some of these cases over to the DOJ. ... As a system as a whole, veterans can clearly see trust has been broken. We really need to see that justice will be dispensed and that there will be serious change."
Redfern is an Iraq combat veteran who serves as president of an organization called The United States of Hope, which provides a variety of services to veterans.
He experienced heavy combat in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, which he says made for a very difficult transition to civilian life. Redfern says he noticed other vets were also having similar problems. He eventually decided to devote his life to helping them.
In this evening's feature interview, he speaks with Edward O'Brien about his hopes and concerns about the proposed reform of the Veterans Administration health care system.
First, O'Brien asks for Redfern's assessment of Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald's proposed 90-day plan for fixing the troubled agency:
