Former Secretary McDonald: All Americans, not just vets, need VA

WASHINGTON — Bob McDonald spent much of his time as Veterans Affairs Secretary working to remind Americans about the importance of the sprawling health care and benefits system.

Now he worries that debates over privatization and medical care choices will overshadow those public awareness efforts.

“Whether a veteran goes to the private sector or to the VA for care is an important discussion to have, but there is a larger discussion to have too,” the former Procter & Gamble CEO told Military Times on Tuesday.

“I continue to feel like VA is incredibly important. Not only veterans need the VA, but American medicine and the American public needs the VA.”

McDonald, who stepped down from the top department post at the start of President Donald Trump’s administration, is stepping back into veterans community work this week with a new role at RallyPoint, a military-themed social network. His work will include looking for ways to use the firm’s resources to ease military transitions and connect veterans through technology.

He said serving on the company’s board of directors gives him a chance to highlight a broad array of veterans organizations and assistance programs, an opportunity he sees as building off his VA experience.

“No one agency or government can do everything itself,” he said. “Finding the right way to balance the partnerships, create an ecosystem on behalf of veterans, servicemembers and military families is really the big idea.”

McDonald frequently spoke about those kind of connections during his two-and-a-half-year tenure as VA Secretary. He took over the post in the wake of the 2014 wait time scandal which shook public confidence in the system, and forced him into a role of chief VA marketer along with his CEO duties.

The West Point graduate said he has been generally pleased with department news since his departure, and sees significant continuity with initiatives he put in place. The biggest change has been on the legislative side, where a host of bills that he lobbied lawmakers on are now moving more quickly in a Republican-controlled Congress and White House.

But McDonald said he does worry that VA Secretary Shulkin — a holdover from his own leadership team — has not been able to fill top department posts because of a slowed confirmation process. In six months, only Shulkin has been confirmed by the Senate as a new permanent department senior official.

“The most important thing for him is to get the team he needs around him,” he said. “Leadership matters. That’s job number 1, 2 and 3.”

He called recent public discussions of VA privatization “myopic,” adding that all involved parties need to do more to highlight the broader importance of department health care operations to American society.

“If VA goes away, who is going to train the 70 percent of doctors in the country that VA currently handles?” he asked, echoing a familiar refrain from his time in office.

During recruiting speeches, McDonald would frequently refer to VA medical innovations like the nicotine patch and prosthetics advances as proof of the wider importance of the department’s medical system, beyond the direct mission of helping veterans.

“To me, the issue of (outside collaboration) is not a question of ‘either/or.’ It’s a question of ‘and,’” he said.

McDonald said he has stayed in contact with Shulkin, but drifted away from the day-to-day developments on VA policy and operations. Instead, he has maintained relationships with veterans groups and events, including involvement in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games earlier this month.

He said he hopes to grow those relationships even more in his new role.

Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at lshane@militarytimes.com.

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