WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Veterans Affairs promised Wednesday to “shake up complacency” at the struggling department by expanding private care to better meet the growing health needs of veterans, but he rejected a wholesale dismantling of VA.
Robert Wilkie, currently serving as a Pentagon undersecretary, stressed the VA must work faster and better to address a rapidly growing population of veterans. He said he will not tolerate continued problems of long waits and bureaucratic delays and will strive to quickly implement a newly signed law to ease access to private health care providers.
“There are no more excuses,” he told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. “You have infused VA with a $200 billion budget, you have passed the Accountability Act — to shake up complacency — and you have passed the Mission Act to bring the institutional VA, community care and caregivers closer together. The future is up to the department.”
Still, he said the government-run VA could never be fully replaced by the private sector and that the quality of VA care remains high. The new law easing restrictions on private care gives the VA secretary wide authority to decide when veterans can bypass the VA, based on whether they receive “quality” care.
