The Illusion of Choice
In the newest issue of The American Prospect, VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon shares the initial findings of her nationwide investigation on the healthcare deserts that VA leaders and lawmakers are increasingly funneling veteran patients into.
To tell this story, entitled “The Illusion of Choice,” Gordon undertook an exhaustive survey of the U.S. health care landscape in all 50 states, assessing the data on the available supply of primary care providers, mental health professionals, and hospitals, particularly in the rural (and remote rural) areas where about one-quarter of all veterans, or about 4.7 million, reside, with 2.8 million of them enrolled in the VHA. What she discovered was shocking: “a system that cannot provide even basic medical and mental health services to non-veteran patients.” Gordon continues: “Hundreds of hospitals in America’s rural counties and underserved areas have curtailed critical services or closed entirely. And thousands of counties across America are experiencing significant health provider shortages, according to federal data.”
These dramatic shortfalls are set to get even worse with the passage of President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill”. On top of unilaterally imposed cuts that are already crippling the nation’s academic medical centers, the law, signed on July 4, will impose over a trillion dollars of cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Around 17 million people are expected to lose their health insurance due to Trump’s policies, guaranteeing increased uncompensated care at emergency rooms. States will also have less money to fund their Medicaid programs. All of this will lead to additional hospital closures and more shortages of health care personnel.
Amid Trump’s gutting of this already fragile system, his VA Secretary Doug Collins, plus Republicans in Congress, want to send more veteran patients into this troubled private-sector system. Observed one longtime VA expert: “Imagining that you can add more complex VA patients into a private-sector system that will be reeling from, and contracting because of, funding cuts is nothing short of delusional.”
Read Gordon’s article here.