Politics

Moulton: The VA System Is Broken, Privatization Should Be An Option

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Phillip Stucky Contributor
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Democratic presidential candidate and Rep. Seth Moulton declared that the Veteran’s Affairs hospital system is broken during a Sunday morning episode of “State of the Union.”

“I’m the only candidate in this race who actually gets single payer health care because I made a commitment to continue getting my own health care at the VA when I got elected to  Congress,” Moulton began. “I can tell you plenty of stories about how my health care at the VA with this socialized government system is not great. The first time I got surgery at the VA, they sent me home with the wrong medications.”(RELATED: Boston Globe Columnist Castrates White House Hopeful Seth Moulton With A Poem)

The former marine went on to describe two former platoon members that have passed away since arriving home, something the Democrat credits with poor health care at the VA. He also argued that the VA, or even government-run health care, in general, is not a system that everybody wants. He asserted that people should be allowed to choose for themselves whether or not they use Medicare of some other form of health care, adding that competition will lower costs.

“A lot of people want to keep their private health care system if we have a system rather than just forcing everybody on to Medicare, we have a system where Medicare for all or maybe a more modern version of Medicare competes with private options, that people are perfectly willing or allowed to keep if they want, that competition will lower premiums, it will lower costs, it will improve outcomes for everybody. That’s a good thing to have in our system,” he argued.

“The VA is broken. Now, there are some parts of it that work pretty well. I’ll give you a good example: if I have a prescription at the VA and need it refilled, I can go online, log in, check a box. It shows up two days later in the mail and it doesn’t cost much because the VA negotiates drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, which is what Medicare should do but doesn’t. That’s an example of where the VA, a single payer system actually works better than some of the other alternatives we have,” he said during the discussion.

“What should happen is there should be more competition in the system. Jake, my bottom line is that veterans deserve the best health care in the world, period. So if we can’t do it through the VA, then [privatization] should be an option,” he concluded.

The discussion came after President Donald Trump and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agreed that the VA system isn’t broken. AOC asserted that it wasn’t broken, and didn’t need to be privatized, and Trump argued that the system is great due to the fact that “We got Veterans Choice Accountability Passed,” he tweeted Wednesday.