Borland Veterans’ Medical Center in Leeds, home to the Massachusetts Healthcare System in Central Western Virginia.
Staff files photos
A recent news article in the Official Gazette seemed to all be working well with employee morale and welfare status at the Veterans Health Department Medical Center in Leeds.
This article reported that none of the 1,000 or more employees were initially rejected by the U.S. Veterans Affairs Bureau in a Trump administration purge of federal workforce at our local VA health facilities.
However, since then, at least one combat veteran employee who worked at Springfield Veterinary Center has been fired, with confirmation that there may be more layoffs. It’s mean on so many levels, but there’s another important threat to the veteran health care that’s pervasive in Washington. Congressional Republicans are driving plans to privatize VA Healthcare.
The double spake used is the law of the title Veterans Access ActOver time, it will dismantle the VA’s integrated health care system and replace it with what is called “community care,” or VA Euphemism for private health care.
On the surface, the law appears to be a good thing for veterans, allowing veterans with addiction and mental health challenges to gain free access to outpatient care in the community without the permission or referral of a VA. The law would force the VA to pay the bill.
However, policy experts say the true intention behind the bill is “Trojan sneak attack.” This is an explanation used by Russell B. Lemmur, a senior policy analyst at the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute.
In about three years, the law will create a new system that encompasses all healthcare and fundamentally transform the VA’s current mission as a healthcare provider into an “insurer’s written check,” says Lemle.
“Follow the money that bleeding from Virginia to the private sector,” Lemle wrote on Military.com, a popular news site for active and veterans.
“The result is probably that the VA will close inpatient services and instead become a vast outpatient clinic. If that sounds familiar, it’s a plan laid out in Project 2025 Playbook. Veterans are aware that the VA facilities they rely on are not affected. Don’t buy it for a moment. ”
If this occurs, it will significantly change the way veterans in western Massachusetts are taken care of. The VA Central West West Massachusetts Healthcare System has already withstanded previous federal plans to close Leeds Medical Center.
After the first review from the Trump administration that used outdated and incomplete data, it was proposed to close the VA Medical Center and send healthcare programs to the VA or the community.
That review was far sexual for several reasons, but it was the fact that over $200 million in construction has been invested in the facility over the past few years at least. The closure would have created great challenges for many veterans living in rural areas of our area.
With the help of U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, the center remained intact, but now there is a new Trump administration and now we can shutter Virginia’s healthcare. Many believe this final state will ultimately be a cry from VA care until it is put in full force for private health care.
Last year, an independent health professional studying Project 2025 warned that the survival of the VA system is facing a termination of mise if the VA is forced to pay for increasingly out-of-control community care.
VAs essentially become insurance agents, sending veterans into the community, where there is often a lack of care and already lacking a variety of specialties.
Anyone who has tried to get a primary care physician, neurology, dermatology appointment, or a psychiatrist, knows how difficult it can be to get an appointment from time to time. Sending more veterans for care doesn’t work. The country’s health care system cannot absorb millions of veterans who need appointments.
Another factor is the influx of nearly 400,000 newly registered veterans passed in August 2022 and from a commitment to addressing the comprehensive toxic law known as the Agreement Act. The law is considered to be a service related to veterans who were considered 23 diseases, including lung cancer, and were exposed to burning during deployment to places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Senate rejected a non-binding resolution last week by 52-47 votes to “securing full and uninterrupted funding” for the health care provided by the agreement law. Republicans overwhelmingly voted against it.
This is a face slap for nearly 3.5 million American veterans who have been at risk of burning pits and other airborne during the past 20 years of conflict. The agreement law also helped Vietnam War veterans receive health care from exposure to Agent Orange Daro, which was used during the war.
The Veterans Health Department needs to expand its workforce, not shrink. What’s clear is that without adding a significant number of healthcare workers, VAs will need to cut down the services veterans rely on. If veterans want to keep what they have, they need to make noise now.
John Paradis is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. He is a member of the vote, a home of progressive veterans, military families and their civilian supporters. He lives in Florence.
