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National cemeteries. with less than 1% of americans serving in the military, i think we owe those that serve a great deal of gratitude and reflect on the memory of those who have given their lives for our country. >> you have a big job. have things changed? are you seeing change? >> i'm optimistic. i am a doctor. i like to put things in clinical terms. we are monitoring things closely. i am optimistic we are beginning to deal with the issues that have plagued the va system for decades. >> have you seen wait times change? >> we have. we're seeing an improvement. our job is not done but we have ...

We think it's appropriate to take a look, can we do it better so we can shift resources, and not take them away, to other veterans. >> is the system overloaded with noncombat veterans? >> right now, we are providing care to every combat veteran after they leave the service, but the majority of our veterans that we serve are in older age groups, particularly the vietnam veterans, average age, 60 or 70 years old. the older they get, they need more health care services group we are dealing with an older veteran population. >> it's been two years since congress passed a major bill to reform the va...

In revising the system to make it work even better for veterans. if we're going to fix the system, it's going to be in partnership with the president's leadership and a partnership with congress. >> is part of that giving vouchers for private coverage, for private health care? >> what i've said is what we learned in the last crisis from 2014 is that the va needs to get better but i can't do it alone. the system that's going to work best for veterans is an integrated system between the va system, a strong va system working with the private sector. >> where do you put the number for suicides? >>...

Can get the authorities we need. >> do you know how many people you fired? stick i don't keep track of the number. i make sure that when i find the situation where somebody has deviated from our values that they no longer are in the va system. >> what is the biggest problem. if you were to boil it down, what's the biggest problem? the biggest problem is the va has failed to modernize when the rest of health care has been actively changing and evolving. we are hard at work making those decisions. the president's budget that was given to us allows us the resources to invest and making the va sys...

It work even better for veterans. if we're going to fix the system, it's going to be in partnership with the president's leadership and a partnership with congress. >> is part of that giving vouchers for private coverage, for private health care? >> what i've said is what we learned in the last crisis from 2014 is that the va needs to get better but i can't do it alone. the system that's going to work best for veterans is an integrated system between the va system, a strong va system working with the private sector. >> where do you put the number for suicides? >> my single clinical priority is...