This gets brought up every decade...ever since they created the VA in the 1920s. What the VA became was some ‘gift’ assembly line that Congressmen and Senators could gift back to their districts and states.
Once Medicare was created in the 1960s...we should have done some expansion with it (call it Medicare-Plus), and just ended the VA and moved all military qualified folks into this Medicare-Plus program. Then gut the VA and it’s hospitals....ending the mess that has existed for well over seventy years.
The trouble is...it’s a gift assembly line and no political figure wants to end it.
Talked to a vet yesterday who hates driving past 5 top hospitals to go the VA hospital.