Acutely aware that its privatization plan has little support among veterans, the VA has launched a PR blitz to obscure what it's doing.
The Trump administration’s multipronged effort to privatize
the VHA and push millions of veterans out of the VA system remains deeply
unpopular among American veterans. But rather than adjust its proposals to meet
the needs and wishes of veterans, the administration has a better idea: deny
that the changes—which include funding private care at taxpayer expense—amount
to privatization at all.
Over the past several weeks, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie and
his advisors from the Koch brothers-funded Concerned Veterans for America (CVA)
have launched a PR offensive refuting critics who contend that the agency’s
plan to funnel money to private care will lead to VHA privatization. In
multiple press releases, Wilkie adamantly denied that channeling millions of
veterans—and billions of taxpayer dollars—to private-sector health care
providers amounts to VA privatization. Wilkie even convinced four former VA
secretaries, including one who served under President Obama, to publish an
op-ed at FoxNews.com echoing the VA party line. The VA’s Office of Public and
Intergovernmental Affairs followed up with a press release reasserting that,
“The former secretaries also pushed back strongly against predictable and false
claims that the new standards amount to privatization of the VA.”
VA leadership has also sent out a number of directives
instructing VHA public affairs officers and staff to refute veterans’ concerns about
VA privatization. A document entitled “Veteran Community Care (VA MISSION
Act)—Eligibility and Access Standards,” obtained by the Prospect from several
sources who preferred to remain anonymous, has a long section advising how to
counter any questions from veterans uneasy about privatization. Staff are
directed to respond with, “There is no effort underway by anyone or at any
level to privatize the VA.”
In yet another set of talking points delivered to VA staff
and public affairs officers, VA leaders claim that outsourcing more and more
VHA care doesn’t constitute privatization because privatization only occurs
with “the transfer of ownership, property or business from the government to
the private sector.” It goes on to say, “There has never been a proposal to do
this, not from the Administration, Commission on Care or from any Veterans
organization, including Concerned Veterans for America.”
In asking staff to serve as a mouthpiece for the CVA, the VA
leadership is taking yet another step toward an organization that has long been
hostile to the VHA. Indeed, Darin
Selnick, who has been a senior advisor to CVA, is now overseeing the
implementation of the MISSION Act inside the VA. As one VHA staffer who preferred
to remain anonymous said, “I don’t know if Selnick wrote this document or just
edited it.”
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