Trio Of Mar-A-Lago Cronies Secretly Overseeing Veterans’ Care

August 9, 2018 4:18 am

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Last February, shortly after Peter O’Rourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. “Received,” O’Rourke replied. “I will begin a project plan and develop a timeline for action.”

O’Rourke treated the email as an order, but Moskowitz is not his boss. In fact, he is not even a government official. Moskowitz is a Palm Beach doctor who helps wealthy people obtain high-service “concierge” medical care.

More to the point, he is one-third of an informal council that is exerting sweeping influence on the VA from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump’s EPA Bringing Back Deadly Asbestos — From Russia

August 8, 2018 5:00 am

Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.

The Trump administration has gutted environmental protection rules so drastically that asbestos — one of the most dangerous carcinogens ever used in construction — is now once again legal for new uses in U.S. manufacturing.

Asbestos was once widely used in building materials until it was directly linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma. Every year, asbestos still kills 12,000 to 15,000 people in the United States.

The U.S. is one of very few countries worldwide that haven’t yet banned asbestos completely. Its use is, instead, heavily restricted in the U.S.

But now the Trump administration is dramatically loosening those restrictions, which will risk thousands more lives.…

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Privatizing PTSD Care? A Hedge Funder’s Controversial Foray Against VA

August 7, 2018 4:00 am

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Steve Cohen Is Spending Millions to Help Veterans. Why Are People Angry?

At a House hearing last year on post-traumatic stress disorder, a private organization showed up with an ambitious plan to help suffering veterans. The Cohen Veterans Network was opening a chain of free mental health clinics across the country, backed by $275 million from hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen.

By contrast to the high-profile scandals at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Cohen Network claimed 96 percent client satisfaction. In a statement for the hearing, the organization said its clinics “provide a desirable alternative” to the VA — a clear echo of President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to let veterans skip the VA for “a private service provider of their own choice.”

But at that same moment, across the country, the Cohen Network was closing its clinic in Los Angeles less than a year after it opened.

Trumpcare's Medicaid Cutbacks Will Bring The Real Death Panels

State officials will have to inflict illness and death on people whose only crime is having no money -- or as Sarah Palin put it, those who fail the Republican test of “their level of productivity in society.” Those politicians and their appointees who implement the new Medicaid rules will become the real death panels.

Trump's Broken Promise Will Doom Thousands Of His Voters

Back when the president’s health reform plan first passed, Republicans and their media echoes warned loudly about mythical “death panels” embedded in his legislation. Now, the voters who believed that nonsense are about to meet the real death panel -- led by Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, and Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican slated to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump Administration Moves To Block Access To Health Insurance

The Trump administration is moving to make it harder for you to get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The net effect of the proposals would be significantly greater regulatory and paperwork burdens for both consumers and health insurance exchanges, the opposite of Trump’s promise during the campaign and since taking office.