The purpose of the VA is not and never has been to provide healthcare. It is to provide gummint jobs.
The problem right now is, in my humble opinion, in part BECAUSE of the excess number of union employees currently bloating the system at the top.
If one of your family members worked at the VA, you can get a job working there with little to no problem, regardless of qualification.
And once there, the union will protect you from being let go.
It's a federal jobs program for people who are owed a favor for their support of the Establishment.
And the bigger the city the VA is in, the bigger the problem.