In his May 8 letter to The Salt Lake Tribune, Bart Jacobs informs readers that “If you want to see how Medicare for All might work, all you have to do is look at our own veterans system and see just how poorly it is run by the government.”
I wonder — has Mr. Jacobs looked at “our own veterans system” himself? I have.
As a recipient of VA services, and as someone who for much of his life has relied on non-VA services, I can attest with confidence that the VA in Salt Lake is at least the equal of our various private alternatives. Except that it’s less expensive.
Inconveniently for its critics, the VA system demonstrates how cost-effective and responsive a single-payer system can be. Such a positive example, in fact, might well account for its disparagement among those who would privatize any government program, promising riches to private parties should they displace government as custodians of those programs. Witness the investment class’ clamoring to privatize Social Security as another example.
I consider myself fortunate to be a VA beneficiary, as do a strong majority of VA beneficiaries generally.
Yes, let’s do follow that lead.
Thomas M. Walker, Salt Lake City
