But soldiers *have* gov’t run healthcare, and that *isn’t* the case. They’ve had that for an incredibly long time, and they get substantially better care than privately-insured people. Subsidies for prosthetics and things are significantly better for military people with VA care than most people with private insurance.
I use it as a comparison to people who think socialized medicine is a way to go. Also, for a little insight, check out the number of stories popping up recently concerning the VA and Active Duty health care..... such wonderful things like the same insulin pen being used for multiple patients leading to confirmed AIDS/HIV and Hepatitis cases. Or not screening blood before transfusions.... leading to all kinds of wonderful diseases being spread.
And, for some procedures that civilians can go and just get done...... there's a nice long waiting list. Now, I'm not complaining about it, just don't buy into the "everything is wonderful/grass is always greener" arguments.
I was in the military. At the pharmacy, I was always treated like I was bothering them (no linkage between customer and payment). My wife ended up giving birth with no pain relief (nobody was on duty - heck who cares...again no linkage between patient and payment). My daughter almost died at one month old, of a heart problem. Only our nagging them and the heroic efforts of one doctor got her airlifted to an NICU in the civilian world. My wife has refused necessary kidney surgery because of an inept doctor. He had actually been fired, but still had a few months left. We had to wait him out, until we could get approval of the necessary paperwork to get the surgery. The wait caused her bad kidney to do permanent damage to her good kidney.
I have dozens of ‘botched operation’ stories; but, I’m trying to stick to problems directly linked to the ‘socialized’ nature of military medicine.
It is a complete myth that military medical care is at all better than civilian care. Period!