Trump lays groundwork for privatizing veterans' medical care

Rss@dailykos.com (kerry Eleveld) · Thursday, December 29, 2016, 4:00 pm

Donald Trump held meetings Wednesday to discuss options for allowing veterans to access private medical care outside of Veterans Affairs hospitals that have struggled with long wait times for veterans. Connor O'Brien writes:

Trump met with a group of private-sector health care executives, including Mayo Clinic chief executive John Noseworthy and Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove, who is considered a top contender to be the next secretary of Veterans Affairs.

The group discussed "how would you implement a program that could get vets the ability to go to any hospital that they wanted to go to," the transition official said.

"We think we have to have kind of a ... public-private option," the official added. "It's one of the options on the table."

The details of such a transition and how it would work were vague, but don't worry, Trump is "advanced" in his thinking on the matter, reports the New York Times:

Asked whether the president-elect was “advanced” in his thinking on how to confront the V.A.’s problems, the official said, “Of course.” The official then added, referring to the possibility of private care: “It’s one of the options on the table. Definitely an option on the table to have a system where potentially vets can choose” to receive a combination of public and private care or simply opt to go to private doctors.

Source
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/4lcymqgKnrY/-Trump-lays-groundwork-for-privatizing-veterans-medical-care