Tag: Tobin Harshaw

The firing of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin may seem like just another in the recent spate of executive-branch departures. But for his efforts to reform a vast bureaucracy and to better serve America's 20 million veterans, Shulkin will be sorely missed. What's clear is that many of those efforts have been sensible and courageous. The next VA leader -- Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, has been tabbed -- should push ahead on the same track. Shulkin supported a plan approved by Congress to privatize VA services, but was wary of moving too abruptly or drastically. So the department focused on cities where VA hospitals are overcrowded and in rural areas where they are hard to reach. And he proceeded carefully with the effort to shift care for homeless veterans -- some 40,000 people -- to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which may be better suited to the task. The VA still needs to do a better job of vetting veterans who apply for care and disability payments. This responsibility now falls to Jackson. To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg View’s editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net .