As the nation celebrates Veterans Day, the future of the health care system, upon which over nine million veterans depend, is in doubt. A variety of bills in Congress are calling for the full or partial privatization of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)—the nation's largest and only fully integrated healthcare system.
The Trump administration has taken an ambiguous position on VHA privatization. While insisting that he does not want to privatize the VHA, President Trump says he wants to triple the number of veterans who receive private healthcare. More disturbing is the fact that VA leadership is starving hospitals and programs of needed resources and staff. The VHA, for example, currently has over 34,000 vacancies. With the support of many Democrats, by next year the VHA as we know it may be on its way to extinction.
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