READ THE STORY
President Trump just signed the Mission Act, which is supposed to help ailing US veterans get prompt care, including the ability to see a civilian doctor on Uncle Sam’s tab.
President Trump just signed the Mission Act, which is supposed to help ailing US veterans get prompt care, including the ability to see a civilian doctor on Uncle Sam’s tab.
Don’t count on it.
The fine print shows that vets are guaranteed nothing. The
Veterans Affairs secretary is simply empowered to make rules for who gets
civilian care. Though Trump and his pick for secretary, Robert Wilkie, favor
making it easy for vets, Wilkie’s rules could last only as long as Wilkie
remains in office. Worse, they don’t go into effect for two and a half years.
That’s too late for the hundreds of Vietnam vets, now in
their 60s and early 70s, who are carrying a dangerous parasite picked up in
Asia called liver fluke. Many don’t know it, but it’s a ticking time bomb
likely to kill them.
Scandalously, the VA is doing zip to identify and treat
these infected vets, even though an ultrasound test can detect liver-fluke
infection in minutes and medicine can slow its progression into lethal
bile-duct cancer. If there were ever an example of vets needing to be in the
driver’s seat about getting outside care, this is it. But the Mission Act
requires them to get their VA doctor’s permission first.
No comments:
Post a Comment