Reform of the Veterans Affairs Health Care System

The Department of Veterans Affairs has embarked on the reformation of its often-criticized health care system, an insular system that Congress has protected from the tumultuous forces that are reshaping other parts of American medicine. The department is decentralizing, reducing its inpatient capacity, reallocating resources to ambulatory care, and simplifying the convoluted method Congress designed to determine which veterans are eligible to receive medical services. These changes, which are shaking the rigid foundations of the Veterans Affairs system, are the subject of this report. They represent, in many respects, an attempt to transform the department's vast medical system along the . . .