Quote:Surely they have the option of using the private health system? Why are they choosing to wait 7 years to see a doctor in this terrible system? Or does your system not do a great job for the elderly or vulnerable or those less well off?

 

I suppose they get what they deserve those lazy less well off people should have made some better choices rather than working for the government...

 

No, they don't have that option because we are the worst parts of socialized medicine not a free market system at all. Physicians who participate in the government programs are required to abide by the policies of those programs even if the patient doesn't want them to. If a patient has VA or Medicare then the provide is required, by law, to submit a claim to that payer which requires all the clerical work associated with it eg, eligibility verification, referral, pre-cert, benefits determination, etc.

 

The whole VA system is a [BAD WORD REMOVED] that could only have been designed by a government bureaucrat to make sure that he always had a job.

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