Share
Trump Administration Will Bankrupt Healthcare for Veterans By Pushing Unfunded Private Care Option
Trump, who believes he's a champion of veterans continues to work to expand privatization of Veterans care. This would be a costly disaster for our Veterans because Republicans would refuse to cover the massive increase in costs. Please read on.
Last June...at the ceremony in the Rose Garden, Trump said the bill would deliver on his campaign promise to let veterans see private doctors instead of using the Department of Veterans Affairs’ government-run health service: “I’m going to sign legislation that will make veterans’ choice permanent,” he said.
Standing behind him, the leaders of major veterans groups looked around uncomfortably. What Trump called “choice” these veterans groups called “privatization,” and they’d been warning for years that it would cost taxpayers more money and deliver worse care for veterans.
...Trump administration is determined to use the new law to expand the private sector’s role in veterans’ health care. The administration is working on a plan to shift millions more veterans to private doctors and is aiming to unveil the proposal during Trump’s State of Union address in January
Here it is.... the privatization plan that will bankrupt Veterans healthcare.
VA officials have told Congress and veterans groups that it will range from $13.9 billion to $32.1 billion over five years. Since the administration opposes lifting overall government spending... the increased cost of private care will come at the expense of the VA’s own health system.... defies the purpose of the law they passed.
Officials in the VA...warned in meetings with lawmakers the plan would explode the government’s costs by $60 billion to $80 billion a year, forcing the VA to cannibalize its own health centers to pay for private care
Trump’s first VA secretary said he was forced out by ideologues determined to privatize the department, which he called, in a New York Times op-ed, “a political issue aimed at rewarding select people and companies with profits, even if it undermines care for veterans.”
Since bad news travels the fastest, we've likely all heard stories from Veteran family members and friends of issues with VA care. However, that care is superior to private care AND if the goal is to offer "choice" then it can and should be offered without bankrupting the existing system. Simply fund private care as needed.
Despite the VA’s scandal-tainted reputation, studies have shown that the quality of VA health services compares favorably to private providers, and other research suggests private doctors are generally not prepared to handle veterans’ complex needs.
The VA has been purchasing private care to supplement its health system since 1945, and there’s broad consensus that doing so makes economic and medical sense in many instances. But in recent years, conservatives such as the Koch brothers have made it a political priority to shift more veterans to private doctors, under the banner of choice.
Democrats are eager to use their new House majority to stymie the Trump administration’s plans for the VA. “I am deeply concerned about efforts to profiteer off of veterans by undermining VA-administered care and expanding VA’s reliance on private care,” Rep. Mark Takano, a California Democrat who’s hoping to chair the House veterans committee, said in a statement. “It will be extremely important for the new Congress to conduct effective and frequent oversight of VA leadership so that this legislation is implemented properly.”