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By: FEDweek StaffThe Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a statement to counter arguments that former VA Secretary David Shulkin was pushed aside last week to facilitate privatization of VA healthcare and a smaller federal government footprint generally.
It cited budgetary and personnel increases over the past 20 years as “facts” that “debunk the privatization myth.” To offer context, the VA also pointed to the department’s long-standing use of Community Care and the need to coordinate with private providers in order to close gaps in coverage.
Shulkin’s tenure as the head of the federal government’s second-largest bureaucracy publicly came under attack after an IG report faulted him for misuse of funds for travel. He would later apologize and reimburse the department for travel expenses for his wife on a trip to Europe last summer but at that point his ouster was already underway.
Almost immediately after he left office, Shulkin disclosed in a New York Times editorial his views on an internal power struggle in the department, claiming he was “seen as an obstacle to privatization” and that his character had been unfairly attacked and used as a pretext. Veterans service organizations such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars rallied to his defense. They contended he represented to them a steady hand at the helm of an agency beleaguered by poor service, official misconduct, byzantine regulations, antiquated record-keeping, and long delays in the claims-resolution process – problems that Shulkin, a respected healthcare administrator, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to tackle.
Those problems are also cited as a reason to open up the VA to more choice. One organization critical of Shulkin is Concerned Veterans for America, a non-profit group (backed by libertarian industrialists Charles and David Koch), who argue in a white paper that greater choice should be given to veterans for where and how they get care, with less decision-making in the hands of “bureaucrats.”
Under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness Robert Wilkie will serve as acting secretary pending the Senate confirmation process for Jackson. (Wilkie’s appointment bypassed VA under secretary Tom Bowman, which itself has reportedly generated a controversy akin to the Shulkin firing.)
On to Jackson, who comes to the VA from the White House following a career of military medicine that began in 1995. According to his official Navy biography, the Levelland, Texas, native entered the service after earning his degree as a medical doctor from the University of Texas Medical Branch. He graduated from the Undersea Medical Officer Program at Groton Naval Submarine Base, Conn., and earned certifications in both submarine and hyperbaric medicine.
He went on to serve at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla., Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 in Sigonella, Italy, and the Naval Safety Center at Norfolk Naval Station, Va.
Jackson also served at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, Va., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., from where he deployed to a shock-trauma platoon at Taqaddum, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was appointed as White House Physician in 2006.
If confirmed, he would take the helm of the VA, a sprawling network of 1,240 facilities staffed by 385,233 personnel with a 2018 enacted budget of $188.65 billion and serving over nine million veterans each year.
