Tricking Veterans: Using Suicide and Mental Health Struggles as a Guise for Privatizing the VA

[slightlv]

1. This is so bad...

the VA is adept at dealing with the special circumstances surrounding veteran care. Private doc aren't. And there's one huge problem, no matter how you come down on that idea...

Unless you live in a BIG city, NO ONE has access to close, safe medical care. The hospitals have already closed. The "clinics" and emergency services that took their spaces are closing down now. We just lost the last one in this small city last year. We used to have 2 fully functioning hospitals here. Now, we no longer even have an emergency clinic! This is a military town. Take out the VA, and veterans will be pushed into the big city with the rest of us. At least a one hour drive, long wait times for appointments, and medicos not entrenched in the special circumstances of veterans. In addition, our VA here operates an "old folks" home, with onsite veteran nursing, for veterans. I can guess what's going to happen to it.