I haven't been following all the news as closely as I should have been the last couple of weeks

I haven't been following all the news as closley as I should have been the last couple of weeks but I saw something over at Instapundit this morning that made me stop and say "Whaaa???"

Ezra wins on points. But here’s the thing: Army hospitals have all the advantages that single-payer advocates love about the VA. They’re unified. There’s no profit incentive–indeed, the doctors are on quite low salaries. They have great incentives for preventive care. They certainly don’t have any profit motive to provide bad care. So why did Walter Reed suck? And what guarantees that the VA is the system we’ll follow, rather than the multiple other dysfunctional government systems everyone hates?

Apparently the VA is now the standard of care in this country while the Military Medical system is looked upon as 3rd or 4th rate. When did this happen?

It wasn't that long ago when the VA was looked upon as the place to send veterans to die. Movies were made about it - Article 99 for one.

From personal experience I know the level of military medical care. I was a patient at Ireland Army Hospital and worked as a Hospital Corpsman at 3 others. As a patient my care was good but I was expected to work. I had to make my own bed and help clean the ward. As a provider we always tried to provide the best care possible and considering a lot of it was provided by 18 or 19 year old guys with a whole 10 weeks of training we did a pretty good job. All the hopsitals I was stationed at passed the JCAHO accreditation process there were issues of course. The hospitals were crowded, long waits for some procedures (a dental cleaning had a waiting list of two years at Nav Hosp. Philly) due to lack of resources, and age, but the quality of care was the best the staff could provide.