⭐ MUST READ OF THE DAY: The VA Privatization Playbook: Two Decades of Denial (PDF) – Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute

A new report from Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon traces a nearly 20-year, Koch-funded campaign to hollow out the VA by “privatization by attrition,” steadily shifting veterans and dollars into private “community care” until in-house VA services wither. It chronicles everything from McCain’s 2008 “plastic card” through the 2014 Choice Act and 2018 MISSION Act to today: community care has climbed from about 13% of VA’s medical budget in 2019 toward a projected 38% by 2028, even as studies show VA care produces markedly lower mortality than the private sector. Secretary Doug Collins has cut some 35,000 health workers, including 392 psychologists. By the way, note who was one of the movement’s early leaders: a young CVA chief executive named Pete Hegseth. …