AARP Hearing Center
Thousands of veterans have written to the federal government saying they’re pleased they’ll soon get more access to private doctors, hospitals and clinics as a result of congressional action that followed horror stories of long waits for care at government-run veterans medical centers.
But several veterans groups nevertheless worry there won’t be enough money to pay for it all.
Comments have poured in to the Department of Veterans Affairs in response to proposed rules for implementing the VA Mission Act, the bipartisan 2018 law that expands veterans medical care outside the VA system. The VA asked for public comment before it finalizes the regulations, needed by June 6. The deadline for submitting public comments is next Monday, March 25; more than 9,800 comments had already come in by Tuesday afternoon.
Ron Bertsch, a Vietnam veteran from Lake Havasu City, Ariz., commented that the Mission Act will remove the “single largest obstacle to getting specialized healthcare,” namely, the restrictions placed on veterans by requirements that they use certain VA facilities even when better alternatives may be closer.
“Please help eliminate these invisible borders that exist within the VA Health Care System,” he said.
Many of the positive opinions use the same or similar language as suggested by supportive groups such as Concerned Veterans for America. “For too long veterans have been forced to endure substandard care at VA facilities,” a number of comments state. “While much of the care provided is first rate, those times when the VA fails the veteran, it fails spectacularly, and currently, veterans have no alternative but to endure those failures.”
But in what appears to be a minority view among commenters, other veterans said they worry the push for more private medical care will erode support and money needed to keep VA-system medical centers running.
Ronald Meyer, whose hometown was not listed, served in Vietnam beginning in 1966 and opposes the community care program because it will be “detrimental” to veterans’ health care. He called it an “attempt to privatize that will be more costly and veterans will not receive the care they deserve.”
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