There is only one group of people in the USA who rely totally on government healthcare; those are the veterans who bravely served this country, a group to whom we all owe a major debt of gratitude. So what sort of care do they get? Under Obama, the care was pretty poor. In some locations, vets were made to wait up to six months just to see a doctor. Some vets actually died while waiting for care. In the 2016 campaign, President Trump repeatedly called for this situation to be remedied. He called for better and quicker care for the vets. One idea that he pushed was to allow vets to see private doctors at the government's cost if the wait was too long at the local VA facility or if the vet lived in a place where there was no local VA facility. Trump also pushed for getting rid of the VA personnel who created phony records in an attempt to hide the scandalous waiting periods that had been forced on the vets.
After Trump became President, he appointed as Secretary of Veterans' Affairs David Shulkin, a man who had held the post under Obama and who had been brought in by Obama to try to clean up the mess at the VA. Congress passed a bill last year that allows the VA more easily to fire the dead wood at the agency, and some of those people are now gone. The VA, however, did not act on allowing vets to see private doctors. In fact, the VA Secretary, we now learn, opposes that plan.
President Trump fired the VA Secretary and is replacing him with a man with an impeccable record. The new guy ought to, at a minimum, follow the President's policies with regard to fixing the VA. As a result, the media is now out in full force attacking that idea. Letting vets get care quickly by seeing private doctors is now, according to the NY Times, just a plan by Trump to enrich "his friends" without helping the vets. That's beyond the pale. Vets deserve good healthcare. It's as simple as that. It is unacceptable to fight a plan that would let the vets see doctors when they have the need rather than when the VA can fit them into the schedule. Obviously, the Times cares more about making a phony political argument than about getting healthcare for the vets.
After Trump became President, he appointed as Secretary of Veterans' Affairs David Shulkin, a man who had held the post under Obama and who had been brought in by Obama to try to clean up the mess at the VA. Congress passed a bill last year that allows the VA more easily to fire the dead wood at the agency, and some of those people are now gone. The VA, however, did not act on allowing vets to see private doctors. In fact, the VA Secretary, we now learn, opposes that plan.
President Trump fired the VA Secretary and is replacing him with a man with an impeccable record. The new guy ought to, at a minimum, follow the President's policies with regard to fixing the VA. As a result, the media is now out in full force attacking that idea. Letting vets get care quickly by seeing private doctors is now, according to the NY Times, just a plan by Trump to enrich "his friends" without helping the vets. That's beyond the pale. Vets deserve good healthcare. It's as simple as that. It is unacceptable to fight a plan that would let the vets see doctors when they have the need rather than when the VA can fit them into the schedule. Obviously, the Times cares more about making a phony political argument than about getting healthcare for the vets.
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