washington
CNN
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“Call Pete Hegseth!”
It was March 2018, and then-President Donald Trump was meeting with Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. David Shulkin about ways to reform veterans health care. But the person Trump really wanted to hear from was Hegseth, then a Fox News personality.
Hegseth, who is currently nominated by President Trump to be Secretary of Defense, has been vocal about giving veterans free access to private health care services rather than having to bypass the Veterans Administration to maintain benefits. has persistently advocated. He also lobbies for policies that limit veteran care and believes veterans should seek cuts in government benefits.
According to Shulkin’s 2019 memoir, Hegseth said on speakerphone while Shulkin listened, “A complete option for veterans to go where they want to go for care.” I want to give you that.”
Doug Collins, President Trump’s pick to be the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs, has also expressed support for further privatization of VA health care, which supporters characterize as giving veterans greater choice over their doctors. I’m wearing it. If a veteran “wants to go back to their doctor, that’s fine,” he says. told Fox News last month.
For Shulkin, a rare holdover from the Barack Obama administration to the Trump administration, this was the “worst-case scenario” for veterans’ health care, a scenario Shulkin had repeatedly warned Hegseth about. .
“The version you choose will cost billions of dollars a year and bankrupt the system,” Shulkin recalled telling Hegseth in his memoir. “How can we pursue this responsibly? Unfortunately, he didn’t want to be involved in budget levels or other aspects of day-to-day reality. He prefers soundbites on TV. It was like that.”
If approved, Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Collins would have the opportunity to push for a sweeping overhaul of the military and veteran health care system, which would drastically reduce government health benefits for service members and veterans. Hegseth argues that there are many possibilities, many of which veterans should not seek. all.
Veterans organizations “encourage veterans to apply for all government benefits after leaving the service,” he said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” in 2019. I love my country and I plan to go home and start the next chapter of my life. If you have a mental, physical, or other chronic illness, it’s better if the government supports you, but if it doesn’t, you don’t want to depend on the government. ”
CNN has reached out to Hegseth and members of the Trump transition for comment on this story.
The fight by pro-small government conservatives to privatize veterans’ health care is nothing new. The Veterans Administration, in particular, has long been plagued by bureaucratic challenges that result in long wait times for veterans and, in some cases, dangerously delayed medical care.
Hegseth said last month on the “Sean Ryan Show” podcast that he is not explicitly advocating privatizing the Veterans Administration, but rather “effectively funneling money to veterans” to their preferred doctors. He said it was for the sake of it.
But critics argue that the “free choice” narrative is a Trojan horse to privatize and eventually completely dismantle the VA system, which has a budget of more than $300 billion in 2024. There is.
Hegseth told Sean Ryan that the Veterans Administration “doesn’t like” conversations about more private options “because it could result in budget cuts.”
“This is a classic swampy feedback loop,” he said. He added that when he was being considered as a VA secretary candidate in 2016, he heard from a huge number of veterans who supported his ideas.
But Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who challenged Sen. Mitch McConnell for the Kentucky seat in 2020, said in a conversation with CNN that the debate over privatizing health care is He stressed that the debate has not yet continued, although it has been “going on for years.” “Widely spread” Veterans are protesting, calling for the privatization of the Veterans Administration. ”
“I’m not saying the Veterans Administration is perfect. It’s certainly not perfect,” McGrath, a Democrat, said. “But I doubt there will be such a huge outcry against privatization.”
A senior Biden administration official told CNN that the Veterans Administration is filled with career civil servants who have “dedicated their lives to the health and well-being of the veterans our nation repeatedly sends to war.” These public servants are now very concerned about “the continued health care and benefits available to our serving veterans,” the official added.
As secretary of defense, Hegseth will oversee the military health care system, which is separate from the Veterans Health Administration. But Hegseth widely skeptical According to an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, he has slashed government-provided health insurance and drastically reduced health benefits for both active-duty and retired military personnel so that the Pentagon can spend more on “combat capabilities.” argued that it should be reduced to I wrote it in 2014.
“At this rate, the Pentagon will eventually become a provider of health care and pensions that doubles as war,” he wrote.
McGrath also said that while he understood the idea of trying to cut costs, “there is no data to show that privatization will significantly reduce costs.”
“Medical costs are high no matter what you do,” she says. “And I think, and I think a lot of people are worried, that the quality of health care is going to go down because we’re going to move VA health care over to the private sector. Private. The sector has an incentive to make a profit…Health insurance makes money by: “denying care. Is that what we want? ”
Hegseth is the CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a veterans organization backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch. lobbied for veterans health care Only veterans with service-connected disabilities and special needs are eligible.
This policy would significantly limit the number of future veterans eligible for VA treatment. Hegseth’s skepticism about the wide range of government benefits available to veterans has drawn ire from veterans’ groups.
Max Rose, an Army Reserve officer and former Democratic congressman who is now a senior adviser to the progressive veterans group VoteVets, said Mr. Hegseth’s comments “were going to war, protecting and defending our country.” He criticized the military for being “extremely disrespectful” to the veterans who had been trusted by the military. Our rights and our way of life and do we think they’re going to come home and abuse our health services? ”
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Shulkin said some of Hegseth’s ideas weren’t far-fetched, especially if wait times for veterans’ appointments were too long. I agree that it should be done. But he also said Hegseth was an outsider with no experience in Veterans Affairs or the health care field and did not understand the “complexity” of the system he was completely rebuilding.
“I told him at the time, ‘I’m here on earth, I know the reality,'” he said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday. “I see patients and veterans with PTSD. I’ve been a physician in the private sector all my life, and the hospitals I ran didn’t have the capacity to care for these patients. I know, I’m not just going to give it away. [veterans] Hold the voucher and say “Good luck.” ”
As Shulkin’s memoir shows, Hegseth and U.S. Veterans Concerns claim to have significant influence over Trump on this issue. Mr. Hegseth told Mr. Ryan that President Trump considered Mr. Hegseth to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2016.
By the time President Trump took office, Hegseth had already resigned from CVA amid reports of financial mismanagement, frequent drinking, and sexual harassment accusations, all of which Hegseth denies. . Still, CVA “regularly visited the White House and showed up for meetings even when I hadn’t invited them,” Shulkin wrote in his memoir. “At every turn, White House staff worked to ensure CVA was given a strong voice.”
progressive government watchdog group American Oversight It is also documented CVA’s influence on President Trump on this issue early in his first administration.
Kate Kuzminski, director of military, veterans, and social programs at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), said there may be discussions about relocating some veteran health services, especially those that are not for goods. said. Directly related to military service outside the community and VA. For example, annual health checkups and regular vaccinations.
But she said it raises additional questions about how veterans in vulnerable communities, such as those with low incomes, can continue to receive care, especially if their options are exhausted.
“Individuals who need access to care may have that access delayed or not accessed at all…and we as a nation, philosophically, believe that, yes, that is our responsibility. I said,” Kuzminski said.
As for the military health care system, which is directly overseen by the Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon this year reevaluated its policies over the past decade that have sought to reduce health care costs by reducing staffing at military medical facilities and outsourcing care to civilian physicians. I started. And the hospital.
The move toward privatizing health care has resulted in staffing shortages at military facilities and the lack of acceptance by many civilian health care providers of Tricare, which gives service members and their families access to civilian doctors and clinics. It was becoming difficult to access. A Pentagon inspector general report released last year found that they were only allowed access to substandard facilities.
“I think it’s a good thing to advocate for people to have the most freedom and ability to choose,” Shulkin said. “There’s no question that it’s an important part of health care, but how do we deal with toxic exposure, post-traumatic stress and injuries that occur to young men and women returning after IED explosions? You need a system that knows and can deliver them and that type of care for complex prosthetics.”
Rose expressed similar concerns that veterans may not receive the comprehensive care they need from civilian health care providers. The issue with Veterans Health Services, of which there are “arguably” examples, is “why build on the existing system rather than tear it down.”
“Being able to walk into a facility and talk to someone who understands not just the combat experience, but just the experience of being in the military, is something that a civilian medical facility can’t replace,” Rose said. Ta.
Kuzminski agreed that there are issues where the Veterans Administration is better at treatment than civilian medical care, but said there has been “a lot of progress” in the past decade when it comes to electronic medical records, and that military and civilian medical He said providers will be able to provide better medical care. An image of veterans’ medical needs.
Shulkin said he would reserve judgment on Hegseth’s nomination until he sees him address military and veteran care issues during his confirmation hearing. But he said he hoped Mr Hegseth’s views would change.
“I think what a good leader has to do is be able to recognize when their opinions can and should change, and be able to articulate a vision for actually leading an agency. I believe,” he said. teeth. ”
