11/6/2019

HEALTHCARE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/VA: “A health program for veterans that President Trump heralds as a triumphant success is struggling to make its network of doctors as large as required to meet an aggressive expansion of care outside the Department of Veterans Affairs health facilities, officials said. The company managing the new program in a majority of the states said it would probably need millions of dollars more to meet the plan’s coverage goals. Under a new law, known as the Mission Act, veterans who need to drive for at least 30 minutes to a government-operated veterans hospital — rather than 40 miles under old standards — can receive primary care and mental health services outside the department’s traditional system. The switch for the nine million enrollees in the program for veterans was the biggest shift in American health care since the passage of the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama, potentially moving tens of thousands from government services to private care.”

Jennifer Steinhauer, “Early Problems as Trump’s Signature Veterans’ Health Plan Rolls Out,” The New York Times online, November 6, 2019