I know how to characterize it.
It was the buzz a few years ago, have they improved?
How has Trump done there?
I am not going to allow you to get away with that.
If you have no personal or family experience with the VA, then you're going on hearsay and spreading right wing twaddle.
The VA was for many years a disastrous place to get healthcare, but in the last twenty years they've undertaken a monstrous effort to improve. Not all the ideas worked, there's a continuing issue with some remnants of toxic culture and it is an enormous bureaucracy.
All that having been said, VA care is now equal to or better than the private sector and has been for a while, despite the continued existence of a few really bad VA facilities which cannot seem to get their act together.
The recent scandals involving veterans dying from too long wait times are the exception rather than the rule.
What has Trump done? The one good thing he has managed to do is expand the VA Mission Act, introduce more choice to veterans who live in underserved locations, or who ARE STILL experiencing long wait times.
On the other hand, he has also begun the process of creeping privatization of the VA, something an overwhelming majority of veterans DO NOT WANT.
Here's Anthony J. Principi, one of the most successful recent SecVA's and a Bush pick for the position.
VA isn't broken, but it's in desperate need of change
The smartest recommendation he made, which no one is listening to, is that the VA and Dept of Defense healthcare systems need to be merged into ONE system that accommodates everyone, active duty and veteran alike.
Eliminating the absurd amount of duplication would result in tremendous cost savings, make the transition from active duty to veteran status much easier, allow for MORE facilities even while closing down unneeded locations and it would allow generous sharing of resources.
I don't understand and have never understood WHY the DoD hospital system and the VA system have ever been separate.
I also believe that it would end the growing disconnect between able bodied active duty personnel and disabled vets.
It is healthy for the two groups to stick together, and I am not alone in thinking it improves morale.
I am not the disabled veteran in this discussion, I am
"the six foot growth ATTACHED TO the disabled veteran", namely my wife Karen, who is a 100% service connected disabled Navy vet, who has had her life saved no less than seven times by the VA.
There's plenty of room for improvement, and there are still some issues but overall, VA care is unique and cannot be replaced or duplicated by the private sector.