Although I have never been on welfare, neither have I been wealthy. For most of my life, I have been reasonably healthy. I have a small service-connected disability, but it is only in the past couple of years that I have needed some serious medical care. Without the VA, I doubt I would have been able to afford the care I needed and therefore doubt I would be alive today. This is my 80th year and, believe me, the body is not what it once was. My VA medical care has been more than acceptable, even with trips to Roseburg and, in a couple of cases, Portland and Seattle. Eugene's new clinic is a major improvement over the old River Road one, with the addition of more services such as a lab.

The Trump administration contains many people who want to privatize many aspects of our lives and the VA is one of them. Of course, like all human endeavors, it is not perfect. However, adding millions of vets to the non-VA medical system would overwhelm the already overloaded medical services industry.