President Donald Trump’s insurance policies are inflicting docs to show down job affords in Veterans Affairs hospitals, a brand new report has revealed. Concurrently, the administration is partaking in anti-union actions within the veterans well being care system and Democratic lawmakers say veterans will finally endure.
ProPublica reported on Friday {that a} new evaluation of hiring at VA hospitals since Trump took workplace exhibits that docs are rejecting job affords. Of the roughly 2,000 docs who had been provided jobs between January and March, almost 40% turned down the supply. That turndown charge is a 400% enhance from a 12 months in the past when former President Joe Biden was in workplace.
“Salute to service” by Pedro Molina
ProPublica additionally revealed that docs and nurses already within the system are leaving. Each month that Trump has been in workplace has seen a decline in docs employed by the VA. Between January and June, twice as many nurses left the VA system as have been employed.
The mind drain is going on on the identical time that the administration is targeted on slashing the company’s workforce.
Beneath Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, a longtime Trump cheerleader and apologist when he served in Congress, the administration has pursued important cuts. The company introduced on Thursday that it’s on tempo to chop 30,000 jobs by the top of the 2025 fiscal 12 months.
“This announcement makes clear VA is bleeding employees across the board at an unsustainable rate because of the toxic work environment created by this Administration and DOGE’s slash and trash policies,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, (D-CT) rating member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, stated in a press release.
ProPublica famous in its report that wait occasions have elevated for sufferers looking for main and specialty care, together with wait occasions for outpatient surgical procedure and appointments.
Collins additionally introduced this week that the company is terminating collective bargaining agreements for greater than 350,000 unionized workers. Democrats slammed the motion as one other assault on veteran care.
“While Secretary Collins tries to spin this horrific VA decision to terminate union contracts for most bargaining-unit VA employees, we see it for what it is—a politically motivated attack on VA employees’ rights, power, and autonomy,” Democrats on the Home Veterans’ Affairs committee stated in a joint launch.
Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley stated the motion was “shameful,” whereas Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez stated it “puts veterans’ care at risk and was “unacceptable.”
Trump has lengthy expressed hostility to service members and infamously referred to them as “suckers” and “losers.” Whereas he’s very happy to make use of a navy anniversary as an excuse for a birthday parade for himself, he has been glad to assault and degrade the well being care they desperately want.
