I said I'd not discuss the medical side as I am not in the profession..
I am a receiver of services,, in that I have a 30% service connected, combat disability,, for 39 years. I was also active in the VFW and made many monthly visits to the VA hospital in Miami.
Let me be very clear,, I hate socialized anything to include medicine. I also think the VA system needs a lot of work.
A major part of VA failure is the fact that we have let it become a bureaucratic monster incapable of delivering it's intended mission.
Like all socialized institutions, it has built a hi-archy based on unfitted consumption of money and resources, with little or no care for it's targeted product, and it festers unabated..
Why?? Because the VA is responsibly for a small portion of the population with little political clout.
Additionally, socialists, who can care less about Vets,, are more than willing to use it as a stepping stone for the nationalization of the US medical system..
The Veteran is only used in the context of appropriations,, not the services rendered.
When the VA was initiated, there was a need to help returning veterans integrate back into a society that would shortly fall into world depression.
Quote:
www.va.gov/facmgt/historic/brief_va_history.asp
Congress established a new system of veterans benefits when the United States entered World War I in 1917. Included were programs for disability compensation, insurance for service persons and veterans, and vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. By the 1920s, the various benefits were administered by three different Federal agencies: the Veterans Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.
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It has turned it's back on the veteran. The VA slinks thru the halls of the capital buildings in DC, with it's hand out. It provides just enough feed-back to curry favors from the Congressman & Senators responsible for funding, who in turn, spew great verbiage to the populace, while raising our taxes...
If you target is national socialized medicine,, we will end up like the UK and Canada,, a bureaucratic morass that can only consume and will not die...
My $00.0002
end of rant.....
Well almost,,, I should also add that ALL veterans with service connected disabilities, whether it was combat related or not, are not in a welfare line. These people had a contract with the US government for medical insurance for services rendered.. They deserve nothing but the best... They are not getting what they deserve...