In This Article

• Why the VA delivers better care at lower cost than private healthcare
• How the Trump-Musk budget cuts are demolishing the VA, not reforming it
• What happens when 900,000 disability claims get stuck in limbo
• Why veterans are disproportionately affected — and forgotten
• What former VA Secretary Dr. Shulkin says about the dismantling of the system

Veterans Betrayed: The Real Cost of VA Budget Cuts

by Robert Jennings, InnerSelf.com

Veterans are among the sickest patients in America, yet the VA treats them more cost-effectively than private healthcare. Now, Trump and Musk's sweeping VA budget cuts threaten to upend that system—leaving 900,000 disability claims backlogged, 40,000 vets homeless, and suicides on the rise.

Let’s cut through the nonsense. When politicians talk about "reforming" the Department of Veterans Affairs, they rarely mean improving it. No, reform is their polite euphemism for privatization — code for transferring taxpayer dollars into private hands under the banner of "efficiency." The latest round of cuts to the VA, spearheaded by President Trump and his corporate sidekick Elon Musk, isn’t reform. It’s demolition with a press release.

As a veteran going to the VA for nearly 30 years, I can attest to their exceptional care. When I needed cataract surgery recently, I chose the VA over Medicare. The kindness, professionalism, and thorough care I received were beyond my expectations. This is not just my story but many veterans who have experienced the same level of care. There is no bureaucratic maze. No out-of-network surprises. No balance billing. Just a system that knows its patients and treats them like humans — because they earned it.

The VA, a system that treats some of the sickest, most complex patients in the country — people with multiple chronic conditions, PTSD, and injuries, both visible and invisible —does so for less money per patient than private healthcare. This is a testament to its efficiency and effectiveness, which should reassure us all—no wonder it’s under attack.

There is still much left to do, as 40,000 veterans are sleeping on sidewalks, in shelters, or in cars. Many of them suffer from mental health conditions or substance abuse disorders that the VA was built to treat. But now, they're being pushed aside in favor of “cost savings” that don’t actually save anyone — except for the shareholders of for-profit hospital chains, insurance companies, and tech contractors that have wormed their way into veterans’ healthcare. You don’t get better care by cutting out the heart and selling off the pieces. You get press releases and quarterly dividends. Do you really think private healthcare will care or just produce profits?

Even worse, the suicide rate among veterans is climbing. Everyday, an estimated 17 to 22 veterans take their own lives. That’s a national disgrace. And stripping away the very institution designed to help them — the only institution, frankly, that understands the complexity of their trauma — is the policy equivalent of throwing gasoline on a fire and calling it rain.

Who’s Really Honoring Veterans?

Let’s say the quiet part out loud: privatizing veterans’ care is not cheaper, not better, and not moral. The private sector has no incentive to take on complex, expensive, emotionally heavy cases. It cherry-picks the easy stuff and leaves the complex cases — the ones with multiple surgeries, mental health conditions, and long-term care needs — out in the cold.

The numbers back it up. The VA consistently delivers higher patient satisfaction and better outcomes for less money. That’s not a fluke. It’s because it’s designed to serve, not to profit. Strip that away, and what you have left is a lot of press releases, suffering, and very few solutions.

Trump is now upping his game to turn his back on veterans entirely. It wasn’t enough to call soldiers “suckers” and “losers” — as multiple reports confirmed he did behind closed doors. Now he’s aiming policy fire at the very systems designed to care for them. The man who expanded private-sector access through the VA MISSION Act is no longer content with a slow bleed; he’s going for full amputation.

While Trump and Musk hack away at the VA with chainsaws labeled “efficiency,” the Biden administration did something rare in Washington: it told the truth. In 2022, President Biden signed the Honoring Our PACT Act into law — a historic move that gives us hope for the future of veterans' healthcare. This act, which covers over 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, Agent Orange, and other service-related environmental hazards, is a significant step towards improving healthcare access and fast-tracking claims.

The PACT Act, which stands for Presumptive Benefits for War Fighters Exposed to Burn Pits and Other Toxins Act, is a landmark legislation that covers over 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, Agent Orange, and other service-related environmental hazards. It expands healthcare access, fast-tracks claims, and — most importantly — lifts the burden of proof from sick veterans who’ve spent decades fighting both disease and bureaucracy. This act is a significant step towards acknowledging and addressing the health issues faced by our veterans.

At the signing ceremony, Biden cut through the patriotic pageantry and said what most presidents never do: “Only 1 percent of the American population has risked everything to defend the other 99 percent of us. We owe you. We owe you big.” That’s not just a soundbite. That’s a policy backed by $280 billion over ten years. It’s not perfect, but it’s real.

In 2020, Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act, which included pay raises for troops and funding for critical veteran programs. His reason? It didn’t repeal Section 230 (which protects social media companies from liability), and it proposed renaming military bases named after Confederate generals. This veto directly affected our troops' and veterans' livelihood and well-being, showing where his priorities lie. In other words, he tanked a lifeline for veterans over Twitter grudges and nostalgia for Confederate traitors.

So the next time you hear someone waving a flag and shouting, “Support the troops,” ask them which president did. One signed a bill to care for the wounded. The other vetoed their paycheck.

The Numbers Don’t Lie — But Privatizers Do

Dr. David Shulkin, who served as Secretary of the VA under Trump, isn’t exactly a flaming liberal. He’s a physician and a policy expert who believes in improving the VA. But even he has drawn a line in the sand. What’s happening now, he says, isn’t improvement — it’s destruction. “This is not reform,” he told reporters. “This is demolition.”

He’s not wrong. And he’s not alone. Veterans groups, healthcare economists, and even conservative veterans are sounding the alarm. The message is clear: if you think healthcare is expensive, try untreated trauma. Try homelessness. Try a generation of veterans who feel abandoned by the very country they risked everything to serve.

If you need complex numbers to back up your instincts, here they are: the average cost of care per patient in the VA system is significantly lower than in the private sector — even though the VA treats a much sicker, more complex population. According to independent studies, including those published by the RAND Corporation and the Annals of Internal Medicine, the VA delivers care at 20–40% lower cost per patient compared to Medicare and private insurance.

And that’s not because they’re cutting corners. The VA doesn’t have an army of billers, coders, middle managers, and profit-seekers between the doctor and the patient. There’s no $3,000 ibuprofen. No $20,000 mystery fees for “facility charges.” Just coordinated care — one system, one file, one mission. The people trying to “reform” the VA aren’t trying to improve it. They’re trying to make it billable.

This isn’t just about the VA. It’s about the more significant trend of using budget deficits as a bludgeon against any program that serves the common good. We’ve seen it with Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, public schools, the post office, environmental protection, and the US military support systems. The same people who cheer for trillion-dollar tax cuts and trillion-dollar wars suddenly cry poor when it comes to a veteran’s hip replacement or mental health therapy.

It’s not about money. It’s about priorities. And apparently, the people who made fortunes off our wars can’t spare the chance to care for those who fought them.

The Moral Cost

I don’t write this because I like to rant. I wrote it because I’ve seen the difference. I’ve sat in those VA waiting rooms. I’ve watched the nurses go the extra mile, not because someone clocked them with a stopwatch, but because they cared. Doctors shake my hand and treat me like a person, not a billing code. At the VA, my primary care appointments routinely last 30 to 45 minutes. The doctor listens. Asks follow-ups. Knows my name. Meanwhile, when I go through Medicare — often in some gleaming for-profit clinic — I’m in and out in five to ten minutes if I’m lucky. The comparison is night and day; no press release from a privatization lobbyist will convince me otherwise.

The VA is not some dusty relic of New Deal idealism. It’s a living promise — a social contract with those who took an oath to serve this country and, in many cases, paid for it with their bodies and minds. But like all promises, it’s only as strong as our willingness to honor it. We don’t get to wave the flag on Veterans Day and slash budgets for the rest of the year. We don’t get to say “Thank you for your service” while outsourcing our care to corporations that see them as liabilities. The VA may not be perfect, but I’ll take imperfection with humanity over cold efficiency with a co-pay any day of the week. There is no efficiency for them, neither the patient nor the cost.  Every American should have VA healthcare — not just veterans. It’s what real public service looks like.

The U.S. healthcare system is a monument to failure — the most expensive in the world, yet one of the least effective for the average citizen. We spend nearly twice as much per person as other developed nations and still leave tens of millions underinsured, bankrupt, or dead too soon. And now, veterans — the very people who fulfilled their end of the bargain — are being told they, too, must enter this profit-driven meat grinder.

Privatizing the VA doesn’t fix a problem; it manufactures a crisis for corporate gain. It strips away one of the only functioning public healthcare models in America and tosses our most vulnerable into a system built not to heal, but to harvest. This isn’t policy. It’s betrayal. And it exposes the core lie of American healthcare: that something so obscenely expensive and inefficient could possibly be called the best. Our veterans deserve better. Frankly, so does everyone else.

About the Author

Robert Jennings is the co-publisher of InnerSelf.com, a platform dedicated to empowering individuals and fostering a more connected, equitable world. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, Robert draws on his diverse life experiences, from working in real estate and construction to building InnerSelf with his wife, Marie T. Russell, to bring a practical, grounded perspective to life’s challenges. Founded in 1996, InnerSelf.com shares insights to help people make informed, meaningful choices for themselves and the planet. More than 30 years later, InnerSelf continues to inspire clarity and empowerment.

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Article Recap

The VA treats some of America’s sickest patients more efficiently than private healthcare. Yet Trump and Musk’s budget cuts are pushing the system toward collapse. With nearly a million backlogged claims, tens of thousands of homeless veterans, and suicides on the rise, this isn’t reform — it’s demolition. Former VA Secretary David Shulkin has sounded the alarm. Will we listen, or will we betray those who served us?

#VeteransHealthcare #VABudgetCuts #TrumpMuskCuts #VAUnderAttack #SuicideCrisis #SupportOurVets #DavidShulkin #HomelessVeterans #PrivatizationFails