Yes, Trump is privatizing the VA
By
Suzanne Gordon, opinion contributor - 06/16/17 04:40 PM EDT
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-military/338172-yes-trump-is-privatizing-the-va
Read my lips!
Do
not ‘Privatize’ my V. A. the ‘Trump’ Way.
How VA Reform Turned Into a Fight Over Privatization
Democrats
and service organizations worry that a Republican push to expand
health-care choices for veterans will sap money from the ailing
federal system.
In 2014, the Department of Veterans Affairs was mired in a scandal.
An inspector general’s report had found “systemic” manipulation by government officials to hide lengthy and growing wait times at its medical centers. Veterans were waiting months for appointments, and dozens may have died because they could not get treated in time.
Spurred
to action, Congress created a program aimed at temporarily
alleviating the strain on the VA: Veterans who lived more than 40
miles from a health-care facility or who had to wait more than 30
days for an appointment could take their benefits outside the system
and seek treatment from private doctors.
Veterans
groups backed the move as a necessary response to a crisis. The
Choice Program, as it was called, would allow veterans to get the
care they needed while giving policy-makers time to make broader
fixes at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which suffered from
mismanagement and insufficient resources.
Who Broke the Department of Veterans Affairs?
Three
years later, attempts by Republicans in Congress and the Trump
administration to extend and significantly expand the Choice Program
have given these groups and leading Democrats a new worry: a creeping
privatization of the VA.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/how-va-reform-turned-into-a-fight-over-privatization/533490/