My case has been decided, and I have a baseline percentage of disability.  I’m entitled to VA healthcare.  The VA makes no bones that this care is provided contingent upon federal funding.  They encourage me to maintain any other health insurance I have in addition to VA coverage.  I do have other coverage, and I will maintain it.  I’m fortunate.  Other people may not be so fortunate.  If you’re someone interested in “Obamacare,” that funding distinction is an important one.  VA health care is provided on an as funded basis.  If the money isn’t there, they can’t do it.  In that respect, the statement that “We’d wind up like the VA” is a valid concern.

The people I have been interacting with provide the best care they are able to provide, consistent with their funding.  Their professionalism and competence won’t help people if they don’t have the funds to perform the care they are so clearly capable of providing.  In this vein, we see the limitations of government run and funded care.  If funds are limited, someone at some level will make a decision upon who is entitled to care and under what circumstances.  The VA already has dealt with this — they have different priority groups of care that veterans are entitled to receive.  Each veteran approved for care knows what group they’ve been categorized into and what that care entails.

I would imagine anything approaching public health care would work similarly.  Now that ObamaCare has been signed into law, I shudder to think of the long-term implications.