Ted Cruz calls for VA privatized care option - The Boston Globe

MCPO Roger Collins - Wow....I remember when we used CHAMPUS when I was younger. Hell my mother forgets it's TRICARE now and still calls it CHAMPUS. The only way to fix this is to drop a tactical nuke on the regulations and rewrite them. We cannot continue holding hearings that amount to a blaming contest. I forget who was on the board when the current VA Secretary took over but six months in congress wanted to grill the man over a lack of accountability and how poorly he was doing. He mentioned a VA hospital I think in Denver that wasn't finished and well over budget, and the secretary told him that was before his time. Why didn't the congressman step up and fix the problem? I could see that no one read his full bio because they harped on his leadership skills, and the fact he ran Proctor and Gamble. No one mentioned until later he is a USMA graduate.

SSG Warren Swan - Huge difference between running an established bureaucracy like the VA with political interference than a corporation where your say is the final say. Being a military academy grad isn't the answer, ask Shinseki.

I personally believe that the VA medical system is supposed to fail. The ACA is supposed to fail. Medicare and Medicaid are supposed to fail. That leaves the Democrats running on a platform of universal health care for everyone in the US; we all get the same medical care regardless of who we are, the government runs the system like they do Medicare, no options to private pay if you're not in the system you don't get care (that is unless you are "really, really special" and can pay to do a go-around).

My girlfriend has Tricare and had great medical care from the VA in Montgomery AL, including local medical practices who worked with them to provide care. Then she had breast cancer and had to quit her government contract job and apply for disability. Once she was on Medicare they became her primary provider with Tricare as a supplement. She'd been seeing a doctor she liked a lot, like a whole lot, but the doctor didn't take Medicare assignment. She was told she could no longer see that doctor anymore, and even though she offered to pay out of pocket costs to continue seeing this one doctor, she was told she could not. The doctor told her that unless they gave in to accepting Medicare assignment, they could no longer see private pay Medicare patients. My girlfriend was forced to find a new Medicare approved doctor.

I think that the government had planned for these medical systems to fail all along beginning in 2008, or before. I think they want to force doctors to accept Medicare assignment which forces patients to go only to Medicare approved health facilities or doctors. Doing that allows them to control all health care, (unless you go underground). Medicare/ACA is already the standard of care, meaning your private insurance company, your doctor and you don't make decisions about care treatment, the government does.

Do the best you can to get the treatment you need asap. The Republicans have no options to replace ACA, so for all their talk if they somehow win, there'll be another insurance/care mess to deal with when they decide to undo the ACA and Medicare guidelines. What is absolutely sure is it doesn't matter to any of the people in charge if we have good and affordable health care as long as they still have their lucrative jobs in government and beyond.

Deborah Gregson - I'm going to disagree with a couple of points. No medical system is supposed to fail. But they won't last forever either. You bring up politics, but the VA doesn't know or recognize politics. Both parties have had ample chances o fix it. For 50+ years it's been widely known how bad the VA healthcare has been questionable at the worst good at its best. Due to technology and the ability to broadcast things instantly, many of the things that used to go unmotivated are not in the light. I don't believe any healthcare system is set up for failure, but you have folks who refuse to support it, and as time moves on, it would fail.

I felt that it would not be very smooth. I am retired so I do have Tricare, but for some service-connected issues the VA understands the issue better, which is why I would prefer them. But the level of care is sub-par.

Unfortunately I was hoping to see good things from people who have utilized the program.