Trump Lies To Vets While Stabbing Them In The Back With VA Privatization Scheme

[babylonsister]

http://www.politicususa.com/2018/01/02/trump-lies-vets-stabbing-va-privatization-scheme.html

Trump Lies To Vets While Stabbing Them In The Back With VA Privatization Scheme

By Jason Easley on Tue, Jan 2nd, 2018 at 2:16 pm



Trump told a massive lie to America’s veterans on Monday as he promised them great healthcare as he is moving behind the scenes to privatize the VA.

The President tweeted:

Link to tweet

Here is what is really going on according to The Wall Street Journal:

David Shulkin said in an interview that he wants to make the VA’s hospital system compete with private-sector providers for military veteran customers, which he said would give veterans greater choice over their health care.

….

“The direction I’m taking this is to give veterans more choice in their care,” Dr. Shulkin said, speaking from his office, “and be the decision maker for their care, which I fundamentally believe is a concept that has to be implemented.”

Trump is trying to take away healthcare from veterans who have risked their lives and their health for their country. The Trump tweet should sound familiar because it is the same language that he used before he tried to take healthcare away from 32 million Americans by repealing Obamacare. The Republican dream has been to privatize the VA and replace free healthcare for veterans with a capped voucher that they can use at private medical facilities.

Veterans were promised health care in exchange for their service, but Donald Trump is trying to break that promise with a privatization scheme to benefit the wealthy.

Our vets deserve better, and they should stand up, speak out, and let Trump know that they won’t allow him to steal their healthcare.

[Hortensis]

1. Important topic. VA is on the chopping block.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. What is so sad

is that he keeps telling America the lies, and they keep believing him.

[Fullduplexxx]

3. Fkg around with your vote has consequences . Now we have orwell's president

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. Vets use resources the rich want for themselves. Not complicated.

When people finally accept the reality that the oligarchs and the Paul Ryan's and Darrell Issa's etal of the world WANT us gone, GONE - then and only then can we really grasp this.

Of course they know privatization will kill vets and make homeless many more, they WANT THAT. They must, because NO analysis of the situation doesnt say this will happen. Just like FACT the new tax plan will end ACA and kill Americans, they know this, they WANT this.

They WANT to kill you or your minority neighbor. You wont leave and you wont stop breathing the air, drinking the water and using the infrastructure resources like health care so YOU gotta GO!

Does anyone reading this believe otherwise?

[LiberalLoner]

7. Exactly. Why isnt this obvious to everyone?

[duforsure]

5. He's doing the same thing to the police

[Ms. Toad]

6. I'm skeptical.

There is a difference between eliminating care provided to veterans, through a dedicated hospital system, and eliminating the mandatory purchase of insurance.

The Veterans Choice Program was initiated under Obama to address a well known problem with veterans gaining access to care (particularly specialists, and particularly for people who live a long way from VA facilities). That bill was scheduled to sunset, but the sunset provision was extended after Trump took office.

My niece has run into the problem the Veterans Choice Program was designed to address. She had a suspicious lesion in a breast, and the earliest follow-up appointment she could get in a VA facility was 3 months out.

There may be better ways to address the problem, that do not threaten the VA system where it is working well - but the VA system is not serving many veterans well. In this instance, I don't think his intentions are evil (or that he is blatantly lying)- and the Republican dream that I'm aware of in connection to vouchers is for Medicare, not the VA system.

(There's virtually nothing in the article to go on, but what I'm aware of is consistent with what Obama did to try to improve access to care for veterans.)