As Trump Administration Moves Forward At Full-Tilt With VA Privatization Efforts, House Dems Start To Resist
The move toward privatization of veterans health care has been a hot-topic issue for years on Capitol Hill. Now as the Trump administration is preparing for the shift, Democrats are pushing back, saying leaders have left them out of the planning process.
The Washington Post:
VA Is Gearing Up For A Massive Shift Of Health Care To The Private Sector. But Democrats Are Fighting Back.
President Trump’s signature policy for veterans — allowing more of them to shift their health care from the government-run system to private doctors and hospitals — is under attack from newly empowered Democrats and their allies on Capitol Hill. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie is moving quickly to roll out new rules by June that would expand access to private care, especially for veterans in rural and congested areas, if they have a 30-minute drive to receive primary care. (Rein, 3/21)
In other news from the administration —
Stat:
Will Trump's New Free Speech Order Affect Research Funding?
The Trump administration on Thursday announced a plan to force universities that violate free-speech principles to forfeit billions of dollars in biomedical research and other scientific grants. It is unclear, however, whether any universities might actually be impacted — and whether the requirements, unveiled in an executive order, represent a massive disruption for the country’s research infrastructure or a political statement that will leave scientific work untouched. (Facher, 3/21)
CQ:
Little Decline In HIV Cases For Years, And Some Say For Decades
After President Donald Trump pledged to eliminate HIV in his State of the Union address in early February, he received support from AIDS activists for his promise to increase funds and resources for HIV research. But now his administration is facing backlash over a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about recent trends of HIV infection. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation says the report, in which the CDC claimed the number of newly reported cases of HIV transmission had recently stalled, is misleading. (Cardenas, 3/25)
