There really is no way to ignore the White supremacist and patriarchal roots of MAGA and the Trump administration. The behavior of ICE in conflating Brown skin with “illegal” status is one aspect; the bigoted nature of so many Trump’s insane Executive Orders is another. A recent federal court decision–handed down by a judge appointed by Ronald Reagan–expressed astonishment at the obvious discriminatory motive behind the administration’s NIH cuts. Etc.
Now, the administration is encouraging the VA to be “selective” in providing medical care to veterans. According to a recent report from The Guardian,
Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump.
The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.
Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law.
Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated.
I sent this article to my cousin, a long-time cardiologist whose medical knowledge I sometime share on this site; he responded that this “goes against all the rules that guide the medical profession, not to mention against the guiding principles of this entire nation! It’s simply additional confirmation of Trump’s insanity, not that we needed it! “
According to the report, this permission of discrimination isn’t limited to patient care. “Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity.” The changes even apply to chiropractors, nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers and speech therapists.
The administration claims that these changes were intended to support the president’s executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”. That executive order purported to eliminate existing government protections from transgender people, and since it was issued, the VA has stopped providing most gender-affirming care.
The administration has also forbidden a long list of words, including “gender affirming” and “transgender”, from clinical settings.
The article quoted a former VA administrator who said the changes would allow doctors to refuse to treat veterans based on the reason they were seeking care, including allegations of rape and sexual assault. Refusal could also be based upon current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and on personal behaviors like alcohol or marijuana use.
Most Americans fail to recognize just how extensive the VA is. The Department of Veterans Affairs operates the nation’s largest integrated hospital system; it has more than 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics, employs 26,000 doctors and serves 9 million patients annually. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that rule changes of this sort are likely to have profound consequences.
In an emailed response to questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, did not dispute that the new rules allowed doctors to refuse to treat veteran patients based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation.
Dr. Arthur Caplan, a prominent medical ethics expert, called the new rules “extremely disturbing and unethical.”
The changes are part of a larger attack on the independence of medicine and science by the Trump administration, Caplan said, which has included restrictions and cuts at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, last week fired every member of a key panel that advises the government on vaccines. The Guardian has earlier reported on a VA edict forbidding agency researchers from publishing in scientific journals without clearance from the agency’s political appointees.
Just one more drop in the ocean of ignorance and “othering” that characterizes MAGA and Trumpism. From the “very fine” people Trump insisted were among the bigoted rioters at Charlottesville, to his description of (majority Black) “shithole countries,” to his efforts to bar entry into America from Muslim countries, to his constant manifestations of racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism, Trump has represented and ingratiated himself with the White “Christian” supremacists who form the base of his support.
America’s divisions aren’t political. They’re moral and ethical. And MAGA is on the wrong side of that divide.
I’ve said since day 1 that they just want us all to die. Vets by actions like this, the poor by gutting Medicaid and SNAP, the elderly by destroying SS and Medicare, kids by eliminating free lunch programs… everyone else by elimination of cancer research, etc. Pick your EO – there’s pretty much at least one meant to harm everyone but white, rich, straight men.
The book of these times, here, would be entitled “The Art of the Screw” as Trump Loyalists race to screw peripheral groups around the nation so that, in their demented minds at least, the wealth will be concentrated and funneled into Mar-a-Lago and its hangers on around the world.
I don’t know when my turn will come to join the ranks of the screwed, but soon, I expect, because I no longer work. However, in my defense, Trump never has.
When few medical professionals will work for VA it will crumble and be privatized. Capitalism’s end goal.
One more free reason not to vote in the Primaries. I don’t want to disclose my party affiliation.
What does DOGE know about me.??
Melinda has it correct. The same applies to Medicare and Social Security: Weaken it until it fails, claim that the system is broken, then sell it off to the billionaires.
Meanwhile, the orange horror is being led into WW III by the equally deranged Netanyahu. It sickens me to my core to see my once wonderful nation being turned into a re-wind of 1930s Germany.
What are We the People going to do about it? Let ICE assholes keep dragging innocent men and women out of their cars? Sickening.
I was honored to serve veterans for more than twenty years. I’ve seen and heard every slur known to man from both the veterans and from staff, but never from a physician or a nurse. They clearly understood that they would need to treat everyone who comes for care, regardless of their own beliefs.
This Executive Order (EO) is just one more proof of the insanity of the “Dear Leader.” He’s not only violating the Hatch Act, but for good measure he violated the First Amendment as well. Since he already has signed an EO to override the Thirteenth Amendment. I’m waiting for the EO that just says the Constitution is irrelevant. I wonder if the Congressional Republicans are aware of Article One? To be fair, I also wonder if the Congressional Democrats would be in an uproar if they had any power at all?
I listened to a few minutes of the news this morning and had to turn it off. It was extremely upsetting and a very angry. Is there a word for killing your country? Would that be terracied? Terracide Don seems to be doing a good job.
Sheila, the last three sentences of this essay today are the most down to earth, the most honest, and insightful words you have ever written. Thank you! Thank you!
Peggy, Trump has NEVER cared about the law. To his diseased brain, the Constitution is a quaint item to be ignored. The real problem exists with Congress bending the knee to this monster.
We are in the middle of a national crisis brought about by decades of Republican party initiatives like Citizens United and the repeal of Glass-Steagall. These short-sighted morons are so enamored with money, that they fail to grasp the consequences, both short and long-term, of their irresponsible actions.
Will we lose our democracy this year or next?
Vernon, I’m not sure we still have our democracy. I’m one those who’ve protested. All we are seeing, seems to make OJ double down on his contrary rants and actions.
George Orwell would claim that his copyrights have been invaded, based on the twisted verbiage of the Trump Eo’s. The latter is not protecting anything but male whiteness.
And, we know that to him, veterans are just former “losers” who could not get out of serving, even if they did not want to do so.
The man is sickness to the core, and the oligarchs are having a fine time twanging his strings.
You know? After the United States bombing Iran early this morning, it seems to me, but there’s going to be a whole lot more going on than anybody could possibly be prepared for.
I would venture to say that Iran has been preparing for something like this for a long time. And also have Iranian acolytes waiting to be given the go ahead to do whatever they’re supposed to do, whatever they’ve been trained to do.
That must be the reason why they’re going to restrict comings and goings in and out of the US. I’m actually not sure I ever thought there would be more 9/11s or January 6th’s here. But hey, there’s a lot of things happening right now, and for the past several months, that would have been possible a year ago. Things move fast.
Would have been impossible a year ago.
So, last night Trump congratulated the military on the wonderful job of illegally bombing Iran, said that no other military could have done the job, but when those flyers retire, and need VA services will they not be subject to the same rancid rules that he’s created, as above.
Will they not also be “losers?”
Can not even think about our military, who work eat & sleep together not getting all the preventive shots needed to keep safe.
R F Kennedy has fired the panel that advises the government on vaccines.
Changes being also made at the V A.
My Dad died a year ago from Leukemia that he contracted from his service in Vietnam. My Dad was supportive of Trump’s policies but I think had he been alive today he would be changing his mind. I used to blame his support of Trump on right wing media like Fox News. Before Fox News My Dad could have cared less about what gay people did. It wasn’t till he started ingesting all their garbage that he seemed to become afraid of gay people and people of color. Somehow that “white nationalist garbage” affected my Dad’s thinking even though he wasn’t religious. And that’s what scares me about all of this. People who believe the garbage. People who will turn against their own family and give in to hating groups of people as the answer to our problems. Our nation is dealing with a segment of our society who are mentally ill.
So, what’s next? A national emergency? Martial law? He’s already crowing about the terror cells, which there might be. But who poked the bear in the eyeball? Instead of talking, which they were willing to talk, he drops 30,000 lb bombs on the country. If they can, they’re going to respond. And when they respond, no matter the magnitude of the response, you best believe there’s going to be martial law. This whole thing was hatched by Netanyahu and Trump. Military laws much different than civilian law, military tribunals are much different than civil courts, and there is no habeas corpus. Anybody can be arrested for being an enemy of the state, and held indefinitely.
I wish that professional associations, licensing bodies, etc. would step up, where they can, and expel people who follow these immoral rules (of course the AMA has little power and a poor track record). I would even ask Medical Schools if they could retroactively revoke degrees awarded.
Tangentially related – a recent editorial in Science
In the 1970s, Texas used some of their new oil wealth to upgrade their UT system, including luring top scientists to their medical schools, elevating their standing in the scientific community. Now, in MAGA fashion, they seek to reverse that. Beyond Trump cutting funding for research, the Texas legislature voted to take control of the universities’ hiring, promotions, discipline, and curriculum. The faculty may be stuck in place, having no place to go, but I doubt that Texas will be attracting the best students now.