VA Disputes Guardian Report on Alleged Discrimination
Just hours after The Guardian published an article reporting that the Veterans Administration was changing its policies regarding care delivery to veterans in VA Health facilities, a spokesperson for the VA disputed key facts reported in that article. The article had already been widely quoted in the mainstream media.
On Monday morning, June 16, The Guardian’s Aaron Glantz had reported that “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,” Glantz wrote. And he quoted the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, as not disputing Glantz’s reporting, but stating that “all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law.”
However, immediately after Healthcare Innovation posted a news report quoting excerpts from Glantz’s story, Macaulay Porter, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, reached out to dispute core facts reported in the Guardian story. Porter asserted as “false” the idea that VA hospitals could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats, saying that “Federal law prohibits that, and VA will always follow federal law. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law.” He also declared false the statement in the Guardian story that doctors and other medical staff could be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity stating, “False: federal law prohibits that, and VA will always follow federal law.”
Porter also challenged statements in the Guardian story that the VA now no longer forbids the VA from discriminating against candidates for staff positions or that veterans might have to register at a distant hospital, once again asserting that federal law prohibits such actions, and “VA will always follow federal law.”
