Members of the Joint Armed Forces Honor Guard, Feb. 12, 2019. Army photo by Spc. Dana Clarke This article is an opinion essay written by Jasper Cravens and Russell B. Lemle of the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute. Task & Purpose welcomes submissions on Project 2025 and veteran’s healthcare.
As the November presidential election approaches, veterans deserve to know exactly what to expect regarding their hard-earned healthcare and disability benefits — and the overall future of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — should former President Trump win re-election.
They needn’t look further than Project 2025 , an intricate road map for veterans’ policy under a second Trump administration. The sweeping presidential agenda was produced by the Heritage Foundation and written by more than 140 contributors who previously worked for Trump.
By its own description, the 920-page Project 2025 was designed to be implemented beginning on day one of a second Trump administration. It addresses all aspects of the federal government, including the VA, and is part of an overarching effort to completely remake American government to fit an ultra-conservative doctrine.
Project 2025 proposes several alarming recommendations that could significantly reduce veterans’ access to healthcare. One would realign healthcare benefits to cover only “service-connected conditions,” – i.e., medical or mental health problems that were acquired or exacerbated by military service. Currently, once veterans prove they have a service-related condition, they can receive care for that problem as well as other conditions that they may develop. For example, a veteran whose leg was amputated in the military would not only have lifetime care for that problem, but also for the high blood pressure or cancer that they develop, in civilian life.
The Heritage blueprint argues for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to eliminate clinical services that “don’t align with service-connected conditions.” If this strategy to authorize care based on service-connected disabilities is taken to its logical extension, other care, like for an amputee’s hypertension in the example above, would no longer be furnished. There are five million veterans who have a service-connected designation, and they all potentially stand to lose access for the bulk of […]
Opinion: Project 2025 would slash veterans’ hard-earned benefits
