[L]ike Britain's National Health Service, the VHA provides direct care to veterans, via salaried personnel who are not paid on a fee-for-service basis. As the nation's largest publicly funded, fully integrated health care network, it's a model of socialized medicine more far-reaching than the single-payer plans proposed by Congressman John Conyers and [?!] Senator Bernie Sanders (who is also a leading defender of the VHA).
[...]
Bernie Sanders, former chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee in the Senate and longtime defender [!] of the VHA, has introduced legislation to reduce staff shortages by allocating $5 billion to new hiring. But Secretary for Veterans Affairs Dr. David Shulkin, who served in the Obama administration, is under White House and Congressional pressure to expand a program called "Choice" [!] instead. ...Created by Congress in 2014, Choice allows veterans who have to travel 40 miles or more to the nearest VHA facility, or who face appointment delays longer than 30 days, to use private providers instead.

archived: Faux Accompli

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.