In
a move that left many veterans groups breathing a sigh of relief,
President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday selected the current head
of the nation’s sprawling veterans health care system, Dr. David J.
Shulkin, an appointee of President Obama’s, to become secretary of
veterans affairs.
If confirmed, he will be the first secretary to lead the department who is not a veteran.
While
Mr. Trump’s chosen cabinet is largely made up of Washington outsiders,
Dr. Shulkin, 57, is a relative insider. He has helped lead several
private health care systems, including Beth Israel Medical Center in New
York and the University of Pennsylvania Health System. In 2015, he was
appointed under secretary for health by Mr. Obama and told to cut wait
times in the troubled health care system, which includes 1,700 hospitals
and clinics that serve nearly nine million veterans.
In
that time, Dr. Shulkin has nearly doubled the amount of health care
that veterans receive through private doctors. But he has also rejected
calls for broader privatization, saying that it would cost untold
billions and undermine the hospital system — a stance that puts him at
odds with Mr. Trump.
While
campaigning, the president-elect regularly criticized the department as
hopelessly corrupt and incompetent, and said he would allow all
veterans to choose to go to private doctors. But the selection of Dr.
Shulkin may signal that Mr. Trump plans to take a more measured
approach.
“The Trump campaign made a big deal of what a sucking chest wound the
V.A. was,” said Phillip Carter, an Iraq veteran who studies the agency
for the Center for a New American Security, a research organization that
focuses on the military and veterans. “Then they realized how hard it
would be to turn around, and decided they needed to continue with the
reforms that are already taking effect.”
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