VA Doctors Can Stop Treating Democrats, Unmarried People Now
What, we repeat, what, the fuck.
Sure would be nice to open up the news one day with no headlines that make you say WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, like that Tom Delonge gif. But today is not that day! Headline from The Guardian: “‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans”
True story. Now doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs — the country’s largest hospital system, serving 9 million patients at about 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics, with about 500,000 employees — are being given new guidance that they can refuse to treat patients based on certain personal characteristics. And doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, national origin, political party affiliation, or union activity. This would seemingly go any which way, doctors and staff could also refuse to treat MAGA chuds and anti-union scabs, but who are we kidding?
Veterans hospitals’ bylaws used to say that medical staff could not discriminate against patients “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter.” But somebody, Big Balls from DOGE presumably, has gone through the VA bylaws to remove the words “national origin,” “politics,” and “marital status,” in addition to the guidance to remove “gender affirming” and “transgender.”
The story says that politically objectionable veterans are still entitled to treatment, which they have earned through their service of putting their lives on the line for this country. But it’s unclear how “still entitled to treatment” would work, practically speaking, if there is no one at a rural clinic who will agree to treat a Biden voter or an unmarried cat lady, or a person born in country that the doctors don’t like.
The VA claims this is in response to Trump’s stupid gender-gamete executive order, and it comes after new guidance in March that they do not have to treat transgender individuals, even though that is currently against the law. For now.
The guidance is not published on the VA’s web site, but Guardian reporter Aaron Glantz has seen it, and in an emailed response to his questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, didn’t deny that this is what the new rules say.
This new, creative way to be cruel is not only against basic human decency and ethics, but also flies in the face of standards established by the nonprofit Joint Commission for accrediting hospitals. But Kasperowicz told The Guardian that they had worked with the commission “to ensure these changes would have no impact on VA’s accreditation.” Hard to see how that might be! Perhaps the “working with” was extorting the commission with threats of retribution, as is the Trumpistan way?
On top of this, the VA is getting decimated. Secretary Doug Collins wants to cut 83,000 jobs there, or about 17 percent of all staff, on top of the 66,000 staff vacancies that the VA already was trying to fill in 2024. It’s fired workers at the suicide hotline, in spite of an average of 17.6 veteran suicides per day, and employees who work with high-risk veterans, though it brought some of them back. Ongoing clinical trials have also been halted.
And ProPublica reports DOGE dispatched an AI bot to “munch” the 76,000-ish contracts at the VA. They brought in an engineer — with no medical or government experience, naturally — to figure out what was “waste.” VA Secretary Collins has no medical experience either! Or computer experience! And naturally, stupid ensued:
The code, using outdated and inexpensive AI models, produced results with glaring mistakes. For instance, it hallucinated the size of contracts, frequently misreading them and inflating their value. It concluded more than a thousand were each worth $34 million, when in fact some were for as little as $35,000.
And the DOGE AI tool flagged more than 2,000 contracts for “munching.” It’s unclear how many have been or are on track to be canceled, Doug Collins isn’t telling. VA officials say 600 contracts, but don’t you dare ask which ones, they are secret!
Even the DOGE programmer, Sahil Lavingia, publicly acknowledged that this was an epic fuckup, and got himself fired for saying so, of course.
I think that mistakes were made. I’m sure mistakes were made. Mistakes are always made. I would never recommend someone run my code and do what it says. It’s like that ‘Office’ episode where Steve Carell drives into the lake because Google Maps says drive into the lake. Do not drive into the lake.
Doug Collins disagrees! The lake, the ditch, hoooeeee, get in, y’all, weeze goin’ lake-drivin’!
Watch Doug Collins busted lying at a House hearing last month. Oh hey, if no one has discussed cuts to staff like nurses and psychiatrists, why does he have spreadsheets plotting out exactly that?
Ooh, that question made him dumplin’ bitin’ mad!
And here’s the puzzler: In spite of all these massive and stupid cuts, the big (not passed yet and sitting in the Senate) budget bill increases VA spending by 22 percent, with some of that going to mandatory funding. For what? Here’s a clue, there’s an extra $34 billion for community care programs, which is taxpayer funds going to private clinics. Sure sounds like they want to gut the current VA, and then privatize everything. Republicans always want to privatize everything, and here is a way private companies can get those sweet sick-veteran dollars.
And if you are a veteran and don’t like it, you can sue! Except that the Big Budget Bill also says that now someone has to put up a bond of some undetermined amount before they can sue the government for contempt. You got bond money, veterans?
SIGH, today is a crummy news day, and I’m sorry. But HEY, we just had one of the biggest protest marches in American history! Trump’s approval rating is in the shitter! And the budget bill has not passed yet! Hopefully veterans and the people who actually respect them will realize this is happening and get real mad — maybe like the octogenarian veterans arrested protesting in DC this weekend. Everybody oughta.
[The Guardian / PBS / ProPublica]
Sadly, veterans have, for some time now, been at forefront of groups who consistently vote Republican despite the fact the GOP is absolutely hell bent on screwing them over as much as humanly possible.
As cynical as I am about the Roberts Court, I can't see how this possibly passes muster . . .
But it might get at least 2 votes 🙄