David Shulkin: “The Honorable David Shulkin M.D., Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs”

I came to Washington with the commitment to make our system work better for veterans. That's the commitment that I went to work every day. I continue to feel strongly about that. There was no reason why I would resign.

I received a phone call saying that the President wanted to make a change, and that's certainly his prerogative to do that, and that's what happened.

I think that--my preference would be that we have--since VA uses a different model of primary care...

I think you are absolutely correct. It is why we have had a 90-percent reduction on new starts in opioids because we are using a different approach.