The Role of Veterans Affairs Hospitals in the Health Care System

Abstract

THE hospital system of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), formerly the Veterans Administration, represents the principal way the government provides medical care directly to civilians. It does so in close collaboration with the nation's medical schools, providing a major resource for educating physicians and other health care workers. This educational mission has grown in importance as medical school faculty members turn increasingly to the practice of medicine to earn the money they need to survive and as the Health Care Financing Administration loses enthusiasm for including the cost of medical education in its funding of health care.