The VA health system is supposed to be a closed loop system not available to the general public. To use the system you have to sacrifice something in order to be eligible. I retired with 23 years in the Navy and cannot use the VA as my medical provider. Why cause I was not damaged in the military service. Instead I have Tricare for life (due to my service) and Medicare (due to my age).
When I joined the service in the 60's I was guaranteed 'free' medical care if I served 20 or more years. Well I did serve for that period and for the first 10 years my medical needs were free. After some government cutbacks, I no longer had free care, I had to pay for coverage. True was a lot cheaper than any insurance program, but it wasn't free. Now I am over 65 and pay the same everyone else does for medical coverage ie. Medicare. That is also socialized medicine is it not?
So what am I rambling about, the VA - perhaps not the best system but need by those who did give up body and mind in service of this country.
Medicare is not "socialized medicine"; Medicare is corporate welfare...it is the government paying your bill for services provided by private businesses. A bill that you could not afford to pay on your own, a bill you would never receive in the first place if the business knew you couldn't pay it and no one else was going to pay it for you...Medicare, ObamaCare, Medicaid and VACare are the reason we spend ~3x everyone else in the world for the same, or lessor, results.
Imagine if you could bill people for a service, where you had a near monopoly, and if they couldn't pay the bill, the government would pay it for them no matter how OUTRAGEOUS the price...would you continually strive to lower your price to make it "affordable"...maybe you would, but that wouldn't be the norm in this world.
The VA System is textbook, pure, socialized medicine...the government runs the entire show...it owns the buildings, hires the workers and funds the operation.
>If you are old, you get corporate welfare care through Medicare.
>If you are "almost" poor, you get corporate welfare care through ObamaCare.
>If you are poor, you get corporate welfare care through Medicaid.
>If you are military (injured), you get socialized medicine through the VA.
>Everyone else gets shafted unless they can find an employer or rich relative to pay their way.
That's the US's health system in a nutshell, if you can't find someone else to pay, at least part of, the bill...your are screwed.
Isn't "welfare" and "socialism" all about taking other peoples money for yourself? The USA's health system is really a perverted form of welfare/socialism which is exactly what a certain group of politicians claims to be 100% against and will put an end to it if you give them the power...and when they get that power...they fully, even increase, funding for, and expand, those very systems...Medicare Part D...