“VA care needs to go private ...”
You are so so wrong today that ... well, it’s frightening!
First you confused military with VA...the DOD is not the VA.
I understand that with the Carter and Clinton years funding dried up for military...so you’ve been living on a see-saw.
With Principi’s appointment to the VA in January 2001, all that changed. The VA budget has grown, and the services have improved immensely...so much so that they are twice the integrity and capability of your beloved ‘private’ health care. That and they know what’s wrong with you because everyone they see contributes more knowledge...completely unfamiliar to ‘private’ labs, ‘private’ hospitals, and ‘private’ doctors. Clearly this may not be universal in the VA system (I’ve only seen a sample of 3 facilities). Obviously, your local facility doesn’t measure up in your eyes. I’ll just give you fair warning that your VA professionals will work with you farther than any private practitioners (where you’ll only see a PDA 99% of the time), and claims are a joke with ‘private’ insurers! Been to both, there’s no comparison...the VA runs rings around private health care for veterans!
Another issue is unless you live within a hour or two drive to a VA facility you will rack up transportation cost. Nothing changed military wise when Bush was sworn in.
What I am laughing at is someone blasting private care when it is the most available. A vet with spinal issues would have some of our finest rehabilitation facilities as their choice and likely much sooner as well.
I am not service related disabled but I am disabled and a caregiver to a disabled wife so I do understand needs. I am not a military retiree either. But if my disability was service related and I needed to see a doctor I would rather drive 10 miles to my primary care doctor who can likely work me in that day than play VA roulette. Hospitalization. I would prefer family being about 30 minutes away rather than in many cases a days drive away.
We had several VA patients long term. They had private rooms, in room cable TV, physical, occupational, and speech therapy in house as well as all the smokes they wished.
The local facility in my area is over 100 miles away. Hundreds of doctors and seven hospitals {One level one trauma} are less than 30 miles miles off. You tell me which makes more sense then?
As for VA's record under new management? Meet da Bush people da same ones as da Ford people who were as much responsible as Jimmy Carter himself for creating a royal screwed up mess of things.