Thread by @katieomatheson

My husband is a disabled AF vet. He receives care via the SLC VA (an excellent hospital!) & participates in the same program that most vets do: meds by mail.

Well, his meds are running late...

va.gov/COMMUNITYCARE/….

He usually receives his meds via USPS a couple days after they're prescribed. We’re now going on 9 days & he still hasn’t received them.

Apparently this is a new problem: the attacks on USPS are impacting the ability of vets to get their meds…

We’re all really focused on the #USPS right now for good reason: an attack on the USPS is an attack on elections...

But another piece of the slow crippling of the USPS that is that the VA now delivers a lot of their medications to vets via USPS…

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

Vets who live far away from the VA, vets who live in rural areas, vets who can’t make it to the pharmacy or can’t afford to pay at the pharmacy, all receive their meds in the mail…

“The vast majority of VA prescriptions are fulfilled by mail from a group of seven massive, automated hub pharmacies across the country, the Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP) system..

"... That centralized pharmacy system processes about 80% of all VA outpatient prescriptions, and 90% of those are shipped through USPS. The other prescriptions are typically filled at local VA medical facilities.”

connectingvets.radio.com/articles/usps-….

An attack on the #USPSisEssential
isn’t just an attack on elections, it’s also an attack on vets who get their meds via mail. This could particularly impact vets in rural areas who are far from pharmacies or the VA Hospital.

#utpol