No need to get your knickers in a bunch yet.
I googled this and couldn't find much that was clear. Apparently it came out of the disclosure that this was one of several hypothetical alternatives under consideration by the Dept. of Veteran Affairs.
This administration wants to set us on the road to a restructuring of the USA's health care delivery system -- which is by far the most costly per capita of any country's yet leaves so many people without any health coverage. Problems exist in the health care systems of Canada, Great Britain, or France, e.g., but they are miniscule in comparison to ours.
How this administration will be able to do this, I have no idea -- it looks like a Gordian knot to me. There are many inter-related twisted factors of which some of the most important are these:
The burden of paying for health care over the last 30-50 years has gradually, increasingly been shifted over to employers (&/or to employer-employee partnerships) which -- as health care costs have skyrocketed -- drives up enormously the costs of many US produced goods thus making it difficult for US manufacturers to compete effectively against foreign competitors which do not have those costs.
Add to that, our health insurance companies are profit-making corporations that must satisfy their shareholders and create about a 30% markup in health care costs. Employers, employees, individuals, all pay them to handle all the paperwork to pay the health service providers who in turn must do all kinds of paperwork in order to get reimbursed less than their normal fees (further driving up costs). The health insurance companies lobby extensively to preserve their role in the system. But eliminating them would make millions unemployed.
The pharmaceutical companies charge USA citizens higher prices for their meds than the citizens in any other country and lobby extensively to preserve their role and policies within the system, their promoting of patented new expensive meds that are less effective than much cheaper generics. But eliminate these companies and endanger the development of new medicines?
So where do you begin, what do you do? You begin looking at alternatives, other
possible ways of handling things.
My father was a 38 yr. US Navy veteran; I was born in a military hospital; served in two wars, and while in the service twice was injured and treated in them. I'm eligible for VA benefits, BUT I have Medicare and an internist with whom I'm well pleased. ALSO, having done a 12 month internship in VA hospitals and seen from the inside how that system can operate, for now I elect to pay more money and stay out of the VA system.
I DO strongly agree with the position others voiced that we must make sure that those who have been injured serving their country receive
good medical care. But please, let's put our emphasis on that rather than on the provider who gives it or the location it's offered.