Are VA hospitals really necessary?

Why does the U.S. government and the Veteran’s Administration (VA) feel they need their own hospitals to serve our veterans?

Our country currently supports 1,243 VA health care centers!

Do they feel they can offer better service to our veterans?  If this is the case, based on some of the horror stories we’ve heard about patient wait times alone, they are obviously mistaken.

Do they feel they can supply our veterans care at a more economical price?  When is it ever cheaper getting anything through the government as opposed to a private entity?

So our veterans are generally getting below average care at premium prices. Why is this acceptable?

Is it acceptable because the VA system provides our government with another huge bureaucracy that the politicians get to control?

It’s obviously not acceptable because we want to do what’s best for our veterans.

Do you think the best doctors are dreaming of working at a VA hospital someday? (I’ll give you a clue:  the answer begins with an “n” and ends with an “o.”)

The VA’s annual budget is $186 billion. Of course the VA handles more than health care, but health care eats up most of that budget.  They also administer veteran’s benefits as well as oversee the national cemeteries.

Just to put this in perspective, it is estimated that we spend around $135 billion annually on services for illegal immigrants. (That means we probably spend twice that.) Ouch.

Wouldn’t it seem wiser, easier and more cost efficient to just pay for veterans’ care at private hospitals and other private health care centers?

This option would improve our veterans’ health care, decrease government spending and bureaucracy (draining “the swamp” a little), and inject billions of dollars into the private economy.

It makes too much sense! That’s why the odds are this will never happen.

Oh, and by the way…, when Senator (and veteran) John McCain went back home to Arizona be treated for his brain tumor, why didn’t he go to the VA hospital there?