After risking their lives to defend our freedom, United States veterans deserve the best health care possible. Unfortunately, federal bureaucracies like the Department of Veterans Affairs have proven themselves incapable of providing efficient, quality services to those who need it most. Now a new report has confirmed what the American people have always known: the local, private sector is best suited to provide the care our veterans need.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
The independent commission tasked with examining the Department of Veterans Affairs network of medical facilities will call for more private options in the government’s provision of health care to veterans and the formation of a new board of directors to oversee a ‘far-reaching’ transformation of the system. [...]
The commission found problems associated with veterans’ access to health care to be the “most public and glaring deficiency” at VA hospitals and recommended that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) establish a system that further integrates private health care providers—called the “VHA Care System”—to ensure veterans swiftly obtain care that suits them. The new system would replace the Choice Program established by Congress in 2014, which allows veterans waiting long periods for appointments or living far from VA hospitals to seek care at medical facilities outside the VA.
The VHA Care System would be comprised of VA providers and facilities, federally funded providers and facilities like those supported by the Defense Department, and VA-credentialed community providers and facilities.
The proposed system would give veterans more choice in selecting their providers and would eliminate the wait time and distance criteria established under the current program. Patients would choose their primary and specialty care providers from providers in the system and would be able to seek care at any VHA Care System location across the country, in coordination with their primary care provider.
Veterans deserve access to as much health care as they need. But they also deserve the freedom to seek that care from whomever they determine is the best option for them. Federal bureaucracies -- whether the VA, the IRS, or the EPA -- have been (and always will be) plagued by waste, fraud, and abuse.
It's time to reduce the power of our federal agencies and return power where it belongs. An Article V Convention of States can do exactly this by proposing constitutional amendments that limit the jurisdiction of the federal government. Click here to learn more.
