Ousted Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin hit back at the White House on Thursday, saying political appointees under President Trump forced him out because he resisted privatizing health care services for veterans.
In a media blitz on the day after Mr. Trump fired him, Mr. Shulkin said he lost a “brutal power struggle” over changing the way the government provides health care for about 9 million veterans.
“There are many political appointees in the VA that believe that we are moving in the wrong direction or weren’t moving fast enough toward privatizing the VA,” Mr. Shulkin said on NPR. “I was not against reforming VA, but I was against privatization.”
Also writing in an op-ed in The New York Times, Mr. Shulkin said the political environment in Washington “has turned so toxic, chaotic, disrespectful and subversive that it became impossible for me to accomplish the important work that our veterans need and deserve.”
“I have been falsely accused of things by people who wanted me out of the way,” he said, referring to a watchdog report that said he wasted taxpayers’ money on a trip to Europe with his wife last year.
Mr. Trump is nominating the White House doctor, Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson, to replace Mr. Shulkin. At a speech on the economy in Ohio on Thursday, Mr. Trump hinted that more changes may be coming to the VA health care system.
“I wasn’t happy with the speed with which our veterans were taken care of,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going to have choice at the VA. Our veterans are going to have choice.”
While the agency has made progress, the president said, veterans still wait too long for treatment in the VA system.
“The Democrats didn’t want the vets to have choice,” Mr. Trump said. “There’s a 25-day wait, there’s a six-month wait … they’re vets. They’re our greatest people … They got a [health] problem. And it could be fixed. By the time they see the [VA] doctor, it’s over. It’s over. Not going to happen. We’re going to have real choice.”
House Democrats last week blocked a proposal that would have substantially opened up private care to veterans, saying it would have diverted money from the VA system.
The VA Choice program, in which veterans can seek care with a private doctor, is currently limited to those who live more than 40 miles away from the nearest VA medical center or who would have to wait more than 30 days for an appointment. Under the proposal that failed, more veterans would have been able to gain access to for-profit health care at taxpayer expense.
“We want them to have choice so that they can run to a private doctor and take care of it. And it’s going to get done,” the president said. Senate Republicans say they intend to bring up the proposal again next month.
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the move to replace Mr. Shulkin was not a sign that the administration wants to privatize veterans’ health care.
“There is no intent at this point to privatize the VA,” she told reporters. “The status quo has clearly failed, and we need somebody who understands health care.”
Mr. Shulkin, like his successor, is a physician. He served two years as the VA’s undersecretary of health in the Obama administration.
But the latest reshuffling of leadership at the VA — the fourth change in six years — has revived concerns among the nation’s largest veterans’ groups and Democratic lawmakers that conservatives may be moving closer to their goal of getting the federal government out of caring for veterans through the VA’s system of 170 medical centers and more than 1,000 outpatient clinics nationwide.
“While we look forward to learning more about the qualifications and views of the new nominee, we are extremely concerned about the existing leadership vacuum in VA,” said the group Disabled American Veterans. “At a time of critical negotiations over the future of veterans health care reform, VA today has no Secretary, no undersecretary of Health, and the named acting secretary has no background in health care and no apparent experience working in or with the department.”
The president has tapped Defense Department undersecretary Robert Wilkie to serve as acting VA secretary.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said the president’s ouster of Mr. Shulkin was “a troubling step towards the Trump administration’s ultimate goal of VA privatization.”
Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent and a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said Thursday that Mr. Shulkin’s suspicions about the administration’s intentions are correct.
“Our job is to strengthen the VA, not dismember it,” Mr. Sanders tweeted. “Our veterans have put their lives on the line. We must do everything possible to ensure they receive the benefits they deserve — not privatize the VA.”
Critics, including some veterans groups, have raised concerns that Adm. Jackson is unqualified to lead the VA because he’s never led an organization. The VA is the second-largest agency in the federal government, with a budget of nearly $200 billion and more than 300,000 civilian employees.
The White House said Adm. Jackson, who has served as the White House doctor in the past three administrations, is right for the job.
“Adm. Jackson is a distinguished physician who has bipartisan respect,” Ms. Walters said. “He knows what soldiers need on the battlefield and what they need when they come home as veterans. The president has full confidence in his pick and trusts he will be able to give veterans the care they deserve.”
• Sally Persons contributed to this article.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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