President-Elect Donald Trump would be the first commander-in-chief to fix the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a Washington, D.C., think tank. The solution: Privatize all veterans’ benefits. A Nov. 17 white paper written by Michael F. Cannon and published by the Cato Institute calls for:
• Increasing military pay, so that service members can afford to buy private insurance.
• Change the delivery of government-sponsored insurance benefits, by turning the Veterans Health Administration into a private enterprise.
• Give vouchers to veterans, to be used to buy insurance and get medical care from whichever systems they choose.