Posted on 01/11/2017 10:16:35 AM PST by SeekAndFind
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped David Shulkin to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, he announced Wednesday.
"I appointed today the head secretary of the Veterans Administration, David Shulkin," Trump said during his news conference at Trump Tower in New York. "We'll do a news release in a little while, I'll tell you about David, he's fantastic. He's fantastic. He will do a truly great job. One of the commitments I've made is that we're going to straighten out the whole situation for our veterans."
Shulkin is the VA's current undersecretary for health, a position in which he oversaw more than 1,700 health care sites across the United States.
Before joining the VA, Shulkin was president and CEO of the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City and president of the Morristown Medical Center.
He was also the chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
The announcement means Trump has chosen nominees for 20 of his 21 Cabinet posts -- with the position of secretary of agriculture left to fill.
Veterans' care advocates had said they'd seen clear signs of progress and had lobbied Trump to keep current VA Secretary Robert McDonald in the post. Trump had pledged on the campaign trail to dramatically overhaul the VA. In elevating a current Obama administration appointee, it's not clear whether those plans have changed.
After joining the VA in 2015, Shulkin -- who is not a veteran -- pushed an initiative to expand nurses' authority to provide care, part of an effort to reduce the VA's backlog.
"My number one imperative is to address the access issue among veterans," he told The Washington Post in 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
He has only served in that role since July 6, 2015.
And he was President and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. He has also served as president of a couple of other organizations and Chief Medical Officer of several more. He is an MD.
So my guess is that he’s been in the role long enough to get familiar with the VA on the inside, but hasn’t been corrupted into the VA way of doing things.
Seems like a logical pick so far.
I’ll guarantee you Trump will be watching and probably helping to make sure he is a success.
Lots of folks getting all "concern troll" over this w/o thinking beyond "he's an Obama" appointee". he has a good history and wasn't put in until so much bad stuff was being aired about the VA - he may be one of the few decent selections Obama let slip through the cracks.
Yes, and the VA has remained a disaster that entire time.
300 million+ Americans & this guy keeps his job?
Looks to me like the Shulkin pick is to keep Donald informed as to where all the problems are.
How much authority did he have to change things?
He’s not keeping his job, he is being promoted.
He did push a plan to give nurses more authority to help relieve the backlog.
Now he will be implementing Trump’s plans, but some of Trump’s plans will probably have to have Congressional approval before being implemented.
I trust Trump’s judgement.
Former Senator Scott Brown wanted this job. Guess this tells us what Trump thinks of Scott Brown.
“He has only served in that role since July 6, 2015.
Yes, and the VA has remained a disaster that entire time.
300 million+ Americans & this guy keeps his job?”
He was not the head of the VA. It is a promotion. The VA has been broken for decades, but in his 1.5 years plus at the VA, he probably has learned quite about what is broken about the VA. I wouldn’t expect the VA to be fixed in a year but expect some positive progress.
As a Vet, I am a bit concerned he’s not a Vet, but that may not be an important criteria.
I’ve been not been happy with my interactions with the VA, I’ve always gone for surgeries and treatments privately. Once I was going to have to wait 2 months to see medical staff for an issue, that is far too long. Privately, I was able to see a Doc within a couple of weeks and surgery schedule shortly thereafter.
My question to you as a Vet - what are your other concerns?
CNN? Fake news?
The concern is basic - I don't want any Obama retreads, especially after his miserable failures at the VA. Surely there are others just as, if not more qualified, who don't come with Obama's baggage.
It tells me that Trump wanted an MD/CEO of a health corporation to head the VA instead of a politician.
Makes perfect sense to me.
I’m trusting Trump on this one.
The credentials are fantastic!
“in his 1.5 years plus at the VA, he probably has learned quite about what is broken about the VA.”
Bet he hasn’t. Bet he’s spent his whole time in that executive bubble that provides perfect insulation from veterans’ voices.
What they need to do is strap the sleazy bastards into chairs and force them to listen to vets.
“My question to you as a Vet - what are your other concerns?
The concern is basic - I don’t want any Obama retreads, especially after his miserable failures at the VA. Surely there are others just as, if not more qualified, who don’t come with Obama’s baggage.”
How has your treatment been at the VA?
I’ve had my neck and spinal fusions done privately. A friend of mine has his heart surgery done privately, he really thought the VA wanted him dead the way they were dragging their feet.
Anything Barack Hussein needs to go now, not later.
Close the VA— Give them Medicare and they can go wherever they want If they are certified Combat, we pay for their supplement. Shut it down.
Agree with gdani. I want to know if he is a demrat?
Like the democrat he is, he said last year privatizing parts of the VA would be a “terrible http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-chooses-va-undersecretary-david-shulkin-head-agency-article-1.2943899
No context provided for that referenced remark. If he said it was terrible for combat injuries when discussion of ending special care centers for combat trauma was discussed, then I agree with him. We can’t just tell combat amputees to go to the resthome of their choice. Combat injuries are a specialty.
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