“John McCain has said that improving veterans’ health care would be his top domestic priority as President, yet he has repeatedly voted against increased funding for veterans health care. And now he offers up an plastic card option that will lead to privatization of veterans health care. No one knows how to help and heal veterans like veterans — had I ended up in a regular hospital after returning from Iraq, I would lost my arm. McCain’s plan will only hurt the VA and our veterans more than they are already hurting.”
The urge to privatize is rather bizarre given the VA is able to specialize in common problems such as PTSD that don’t have enough cases in the general population for specialization. The VA is the only institution well suited to caring for a large number of PTSD cases or other common injuries from combat.