After mulling troll Rand Paul's idea let's turn his snark on its head.
Rambling thoughts after watching senator with squirrel on his head make his nasty comments about why not claim asthma, etc. as service connected because of the number of vets who get asthma by a certain age, blah, blah.
It occurred to me --- YES, treat every veteran who has been honorably discharged in the VA system, whether it's for asthma or a broken foot or brain injury - whatever. The process of undergoing evaluation of whether something is a service related condition can be long, expensive, often frustrating and demeaning to the veteran, and can be an unnecessary expense to the VA system. Let's try a pilot program and see if it doesn't actually save the government money in the long run. One of my 3 brothers who are vets actually died of a service-related condition, so I know it can be expensive. Also we now know for sure that many conditions truly are service connected but do not show up immediately.
This would entail enlarging the VA and getting some more medical personnel but look at it from another perspective. Say the veteran eventually ended up with an ACA policy and that would cost the government something and money being fungible, it's just coming from a different bucket. The thing is, if a vet gets appropriate treatment from the time he is discharged, it is a good bet he would be healthier in the long run having a regular long-term doctor and ancillary personnel knowing if he needs treatment and he would get it. The result should be a better and longer life.
The other point is that the VA is the closest we have to universal health care for those who qualify. Enlarging this cohort who quality through a pilot program like this would give us a better idea of what the benefits of limited universal health care and what kind of changes would need to be made - what works and what doesn't. Since the percentage of people serving in the armed forces versus the population of the whole country is so limited, it would be easier to scale up the VA system for a health care trial versus starting a system from scratch. Considering the fact that in the US private sector the outcome per private health care dollar spent is abysmal this should be worth a trial. Also after a few years try adding their families to the system. This, too, would be complete care including OB-GYN and pediatric.
If that works out and Republicans don't have massive strokes, try starting it with civilians in a limited area, like a part of a state that has a stable population and see what the pros and cons are.
Yeah, I know. I'm just dreaming.
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