There are a lot like your son and they should be at the top of the list with 100% priority.
There are a lot playing the system and eating up resources needlessly, including pill seekers, wear them out for disability, etc.
For many years the big VA hospitals sought out vets with Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare eligibility because of the declining number of vets from WWII and Korea (they were dying off). These vets were encouraged to use the system because they would be re-reimbursed and could keep the budget and staff.
Additionally, periodically the services (depending who was in charge) would change large number of discharges from dishonorable, bad conduct, etc. to general/administrative which would make them possibly eligible. They encouraged, processed and approved a significant number of these claims in the 10 - 30% range which swelled the numbers of clients.
With the Mid-East wars and the explosion of real vets with real medical requirements the system was overburdened especially in the mental health area.
In many areas, VA is the only choice that is economically practical for many vets.
What should be frightening is that they used VA as an example of what they would like the nationalized health system to look like.
I retired in 2006 and didn't bother with the VA at first because I had Tricare. They kept sending me letters telling me I was eligible and when they opened a local clinic a few years ago I finally went in because it was much closer than the local base hospital. It is fine for non-acute things like prescriptions and annual physicals but at the times I was seriously ill and needed to see someone immediately it was not capable of helping.