Well, Rohag, I have plenty to say. I'll start with a big piece of basic advice.

I would advise anyone who is a veteran and who also has other health insurance, like Medicare, to get established in BOTH systems simultaneously - especially if the individual is a senior or disabled or having serious, chronic health problems. Yes, you can be a client of your nearest VAMC AND ALSO a client of one of your local civilian healthcare systems. That means you get established with a primary care provider in both camps. Maybe you prefer one and focus primarily on one, but show up to see the other at least every, say, 18 months or so. Here's why. The VA does some things very well. They will offer you some benefits you won't get anywhere else. But the VAMC may have clinics that are overbooked. They may lack some specialties, or not have enough MDs in a given specialty. The ER (or ED) at the VAMC may be less crowded and optimal for certain emergencies. But it's hard to beat a university-connected teaching hospital for broad scope of specialist expertise. Then again, your local urgent care practice is where you want to go to get an embedded splinter taken out of your foot. On the other hand, not all Urgent Cares are created equal. Be wary of allowing a nurse practitioner to diagnose anything. (I consider them better at helping manage a known problem than at troubleshooting a new problem.) If the Urgent Care Center does not have an actual MD there, then I might pass it by.

My guy is primarily a client of the VAMC (his choice.) They have a Home Based Primary Care Program for fragile or very elderly individuals. It's been great for my guy and for me. The VA is particularly generous about giving you any "stuff" you may need. Durable equipment from them tends to be top-of-the-line. But you might wait a bit to initially get an item - like a hospital bed. But what you get is top-shelf. We get unlimited amounts of important disposable supplies (like gloves) and handy stuff like bottles of cleansing foam.

But, right when my guy was well into treatment for cancer, our local VAMC "lost" its oncology dept, which had consisted of one, lonely oncologist (whom we loved.) So my guy now gets his cancer care at a hospital operated by a university with a medical center. He is far better served there, in terms of cancer care.

Lately he's been going to the ER a lot. Sometimes I take (or send) him to the ED at the VAMC. Sometimes we use the ED at the university hospital. I'm glad we have two options. Our VAMC is a lovely, charming facility. I like when he's there. It's real friendly to vets and their families/friends. They have nice, cozy waiting areas where I can even lie down and take a nap. (The staff will gladly give me a pillow and blanket.) At the big, university medical center, I sat for 30 straight hours on a hard little chair next to his bed in the ER. Sometimes the VAMC ED under-appreciates how sick he is. If we go home and I feel the problem was not fully addressed, then I might wait a few days to see how he fares. If it's not so good, I next get him over to the other ED where they don't miss much. (e.g. At the VA they say he's got a viral bronchitis. We go home, and I don't like how he looks. So we go to the university hospital, and they say he's got pneumonia. BTW - reading Xrays is not an exact science.) So we're working both systems, and I'n glad we are.

I could go on, but enough for now.