On Thursday June 6, the Trump administration’s Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) leadership launched its new Veterans Community Care
Program (VCCP). Established under the VA MISSION Act of 2018, the VCCP will
outsource the care of millions of America’s most vulnerable veterans to an army
of private hospitals, physicians, and other providers.
But rolling out this new initiative on anniversary of D-Day,
the allied invasion of Normandy during World War II, could not be more ironic.
Seventy-five years ago, American troops were well prepared
for the invasion of Normandy. Today the troops on the home front, the thousands
of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) physicians, nurses, social workers,
psychologists, clerks, and administrative staff who have been assigned to help
veterans cope with what the Trump Administration has called a “revolution” in
veterans’ health care, are deeply concerned about the future stability of this
new program.
Over the course of the last two months, dozens of
physicians, local VA medical center leaders, and union activists (not to
mention veterans who are expected to benefit from the new options and
representatives of veterans service organizations) have told the Prospect, that
the VCCP is deliberately designed to set them, and the VHA, up for failure.
Consider these examples of how the program is being
undermined: Under the VCCP, veterans who have to drive 30 to 60 minutes or have
to wait more than 20 or 28 days for an appointment will be eligible to see
private-sector doctors and hospitals. Veterans and their care providers are
supposed to discuss whether moving from the VHA to private-sector care doing so
is in the patient’s “best medical interest.”
No comments:
Post a Comment