VA policy change: US doctors can question veterans whether they attended Trump's rallies before treatment?

Doctors and other medical professionals working for the Department of Veterans Affairs can now refuse to treat Democrats and unmarried veterans, reported The Guardian. The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has long had strict anti-discrimination rules and a VA center cannot refuse to treat a veteran because he or she is Black, Jewish, a woman or Latino, for example.

But now an executive order from US President Donald Trump might allow some form of discrimination. The new rules also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations and have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers, The Guardian report said. Experts have also pointed out that under new rules doctors could question veterans about whether they had attended Trump rallies or protests.

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Democrats, unmarried veterans to be denied treatment?

Previously, VA hospital bylaws barred medical staff from discriminating against patients “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter". But now, in response to Trump’s January executive order on “gender ideology,” “national origin,” “politics,” and “marital status” have been removed from the list.

This allows medical staff to deny treatment based on their personal politics, the report revealed. Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated.

Doctors and other medical professionals may be prohibited from working at VA hospitals due to their marital status, political party affiliation, or involvement in union activities, according to documents reviewed by The Guardian. The policy changes also extend to chiropractors, nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers, and speech therapists.

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The updated policies allow doctors, psychologists, dentists and other healthcare workers at VA hospitals to refuse treatment to veterans based on characteristics not explicitly protected by federal law. While veterans are still legally entitled to care, there is now no rule preventing staff from declining service to individuals based on their political beliefs or whether they are unmarried.

Changes already in place

Internal documents reviewed by the outlet show that the changes are already in effect at some VA centers. The VA's press secretary Peter Kasperowicz confirmed the revisions were made to align with Trump's executive order but did not clarify what federal law required such shifts.

"All eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law,” he said in a statement, calling the rule changes a mere “formality.”

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With more than 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics, the VA is the largest integrated hospital system in the U.S. It employs 26,000 doctors and serves 9 million patients annually. The new rules apply to a wide range of professionals, including psychologists, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, certified nurse practitioners, podiatrists, social workers, and speech therapists.

VA employees told The Guardian that the new rules were imposed without consulting the system’s doctors, which would appear to violate the standards established by the nonprofit organization that accredits hospitals.

Medical ethics experts told The Guardian the new rules are “extremely disturbing and unethical.”

“It seems on its face an effort to exert political control over the VA medical staff,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, founding head of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. “What we typically tell people in health care is: ‘You keep your politics at home and take care of your patients."