WASHINGTON — As he campaigns for a second term, President Trump brags about few things more consistently than his record on veterans affairs. Among his signature lines: “No one has done more for veterans than me.”
But nearly four years into his promises to fix systemic problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs, charges of sexism, ineptitude and other flaws remain.
Mr. Trump’s signature plan to expand veteran access to health care outside the department’s own health care centers has been hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic.
His secretary of veterans affairs, Robert L. Wilkie, has been ensnared in an investigation into whether he used his authority to discredit a female veteran who said she was assaulted at a veterans health center in Washington, D.C. Complaints of harassment at veteran’s centers by female veterans remains high.
Black workers recently accused leaders of the Kansas City V.A. of fostering a culture of racism. And as calls from Black veterans and active-duty members of the armed forces to remove the names of Confederate officers from military bases have grown louder, Mr. Wilkie’s own history of insensitive remarks have resurfaced, including those describing the president of the confederacy, Jefferson Davis, as a victim of Northern aggression. He also gave a vigorous defense of Nazi headstones at veterans cemeteries before bowing to pressure to remove them.
While some of Mr. Trump’s promises to ferret out corruption at the department have come to pass, other forms have taken root, including at a new office formed to protect whistle-blowers, which the inspector general determined often found ways to retaliate against them.
Beyond issues of administration at the Department of Veterans Affairs, questions remain about the care offered to those who served.
The suicide rate among veterans — one of Mr. Wilkie’s stated priorities — has not been reduced. The Trump administration’s cutbacks at the post office have hit some veterans, who say they are unable to get their prescriptions by mail.
And while care for veterans with coronavirus appeared to go well — deaths at the hospitals were lower than at many health systems — the department was plagued by a lack of protective equipment for its workers.
And an expensive plan to convert the system’s medical records electronically has hit one delay after another.
That long and expanding litany of problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs has left analysts and some veterans questioning why Mr. Trump has tried to make his record there a centerpiece of his quest for a second term.
“The challenges at the V.A. are multifaceted,” Terri Tanielian, a senior analyst at the RAND Corporation who specializes in military and veteran health issues, said. “Recognizing that addressing these issues takes sustained leadership commitment, not sound bites, is essential if we are going to deliver on the promises to veterans at the V.A.”
Mr. Trump is fond of saying that he delivered the Veterans Choice Program, which enables some veterans to get care outside of the agency’s health centers, and that “no president’s ever been able to do it, and we got it done.”
This is untrue; President Barack Obama signed that law, the product of a bill negotiated between Senators Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona, in 2014. What Mr. Trump signed in 2018 — a measure called was the Mission Act — greatly loosened the standards allowing veterans to seek primary care, urgent care and mental health services outside the department’s system.
The urgent care component is viewed largely as a success. But for primary and specialist care, the legislation has so far not transformed the system. It was somewhat hobbled out of the gate by a shortage of doctors in the network the department chose for the program. The company told lawmakers last year that it would probably need millions of dollars more to meet the coverage goals.
Then,…
Read More: Trump Cites the V.A. as a Central Achievement. But Troubles Simmer.