Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country could refuse to take care of single veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed in the aftermath of an executive order by President Donald Trump, The Guardian reported on Monday.
Although medical staff must treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion, and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment, the new rules indicate that individual workers are now free to decline to care to patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly forbidden by federal law, according to The Guardian.
Until the recent changes, the bylaws of VA hospitals said that medical staff could not discriminate against patients “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter.” Now, several of those items – including “national origin,” “politics,” and “marital status” – have been removed from that list.
Medical experts said the implications of these rule changes could be widespread.
They “seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected”, Dr Kenneth Kizer, the VA’s top healthcare official during the Clinton administration, told The Guardian. He said the changes open up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their “reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use.”
The VA is the country’s largest integrated hospital system, with over 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics. It employs 26,000 doctors and serves some 9 million patients each year.
In an emailed response to questions from The Guardian, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz did not dispute that the new rules permitted doctors to refuse to take care of veterans based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation, but said “all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law.”
He added that the rule changes were nothing more than “a formality,” but also confirmed that they were made to comply with the president’s executive order.
Dr Arthur Caplan, founding head of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, termed the new rules “extremely disturbing and unethical.”
“It seems on its face an effort to exert political control over the VA medical staff,” he said. “What we typically tell people in healthcare is: ‘You keep your politics at home and take care of your patients.'”
Caplan said the rules opened the door to doctors pressing patients about whether they attended a Trump rally or declining to provide healthcare to a veteran because they wore a button critical of Vice President JD Vance or voiced support for gay rights.
Veterans said the new policy would probably harm female veterans, LGBTQ+ veterans, and those who reside in rural areas the most, where there are fewer doctors overall and thus less choices for convenient care.
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