McCain would wreck VA

It doesn't make sense that a former POW would support dismantling much of the Department of Veterans Affairs - but there's a lot of stuff in the current presidential campaign that doesn't make sense.

McCain has been talking about a proposal of his that would practically gut some of the VA's most important functions. Under his plan, brave veterans with noncombat medical problems would be sent to for-profit hospitals for care instead of getting care from the VA.

For much longer than most Americans have even been around, the VA has provided medical care for vets. When compared to the disastrous profit-driven system that defines America's civilian health care, the VA's care has been regarded as more reliable and of better quality. The RAND Corporation (a think tank that does research for the American military) says VA patients get better, faster care than they get from private health corporations. (Anyone familiar with what America's private health care system is like today knows that few things can possibly be worse.) McCain's plan would make veterans use the greed-driven medical system that's already failed everyone else.

What really drives McCain's idea is the fact that corporatism has become so firmly entrenched in his party. The Republicans would rather have important services provided by private for-profit monopolies than by government agencies.

A lot of that could be explained by the fact that powerful Republicans own or lead some of the corporations that would be in charge of such services. When a public agency provides a better service than a for-profit corporation, they can't stand it, because it pokes holes in their rigid ideology.

When conservatives take control in the government, they've been known to set public services up for failure, just to make it look like a profit-driven system is better. That's why the Bush regime chose not to hire enough VA doctors when Bush started the Iraq War.

There's also the question of what a noncombat injury is. McCain says he'd only make vets go to for-profit hospitals for noncombat injuries. But the Pentagon says that any injury that isn't caused by direct enemy fire is a noncombat injury. If a soldier is injured in a military vehicle that gets run off the road by hostile fire, the Pentagon calls that noncombat, because the direct fire was sustained by the vehicle, not the soldier.

The VFW opposes McCain's plan, because the plan would be potentially detrimental to vets.

In his Senate career, McCain is covered by the Senate health plan, but what would've happened to him if the VA hadn't been there for him? America can't afford to disassemble the Department of Veterans Affairs.

(Source: http://www.military.com/news/article/mccain-plan-moves-some-out-of-va-care.html)