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Sharon McMahon's avatar

We included three shorter stories today instead of one medium length one. Would love your thoughts: do you like more, shorter pieces? Prefer one longer story per day? We are building The Preamble to serve you, so let us know your thoughts. ❤️

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Katy's avatar

What I would love from DOGE is an analysis comparing the projected savings against the new costs this decision will create. My husband is a disabled veteran who receives his healthcare at our VA hospital. The line is “30 days or 30 miles”… if he can’t be seen in 30 days or within 30 miles of his home at another VA facility, he can go outside of VA’s network to get care and VA pays. We are lucky to be surrounded by multiple large prestigious healthcare facilities… how much will these layoffs delay care and increase the need for VA to pay for costly services to third parties?

Additionally, my husband is now going to medical school under a program called HPSP. This was extended to VA by President Trump in his first term to address provider shortages at VA. School is paid for and then he will owe 6 years to VA when he is a doctor. This was a win win for us because he wants to work at VA as a physician anyways- it is his calling. We realized he would have likely been laid off had he been a newly minted doctor when this happened. Think about the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent just for my husband alone that they would flush down the drain…

The VA health system has made great strides in the last few decades to break free of the stereotype of poor care. I’m so nervous we will see a swift backslide all for the purpose of “gross savings” on paper reported by DOGE that are likely either incorrect or more likely not properly netted against all of the new costs they create. It’s not a representative picture of the bottom line impact.

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