There has been a lot of talk over the past few years about how bad the Veterans Administration is around the country. Long waits, poor medical service. But somehow, unless I missed it, our local VA hospital seemed to avoid the bad-news headlines. As far as I knew, our Detroit VA hospital was OK. Maybe not great, but acceptable.

The John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit's Midtown is Michigan's busiest VA hospital. Now we're learning it is the lousiest, with a one-star rating in the VA's own internal reviews. That's one star out of a possible five, the only VA hospital in the state ranked so low.

Opened in 1996 with 432 beds and 1.2 million square feet of floor space, the modern hospital was later named for our long-serving congressman John Dingell. After all the service John Dingell has given to this region, letting the hospital slide to such a rating is inexcusable. And if I were U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, married to the namesake and her congressional predecessor, I would be ashamed to be seen in public. She used to brag about how good the hospital was. But you can't spin this. It should never have happened.

The VA's internal rating system only recently became public. It has been a secret system that deliberately keeps results from the public — and the military veterans who are now patients. That's wrong.

A federal program should not keep such results secret from the public it serves. Taxpayers, patients and the public at large should understand exactly how a tax-supported VA system is doing. Quality health care is important, especially for veterans who don't have the same choices in providers the rest of us may have.

There are plenty of challenges in Detroit's health care landscape, with hospital mergers and changes in the way providers are paid for giving care. The challenges facing our local hospitals are immense. And like all systems, it is going to take lots of time and, of course, money. There are no simple, quick fixes.

But our elected officials, including the current congresswoman Dingell, should be demanding — yelling bloody murder — to make sure the VA hospital in Detroit becomes the best in the land.

Competition is a great equalizer. Unfortunately, within the VA system, there is no competition. Maybe veterans should have a voucher system so they can choose their hospitals and providers.

Detroit veterans deserve to have the best health care possible. Our congressional delegation should fight to make that happen.