Arlington, VA – Tonight at 7:30 p.m. the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, chaired by Rep. Phil Roe, M.D., will hold a hearing entitled, “Shaping the Future: Consolidating and Improving VA Community Care.” This hearing will examine the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Choice Program and the future of VA community care programs, authorities and budget impact.
In 2014, CVA convened a bipartisan policy taskforce, the “Fixing Veterans Health Care Taskforce,” to evaluate the specific challenges to delivering veteran health care and the role the VA should play in the wake of changes in the health care industry. The taskforce has proposed concrete reforms including a proposal that would improve the delivery of health care to our nation’s veterans, emphasizing the current choice program doesn’t offer veterans a true choice in where they get their health care.
CVA continues to be at the forefront of choice reform with support for the Caring for Our Heroes in the 21st Century Act, draft legislation introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) last year which would empower veterans to seek care inside or outside the VA at their own discretion. The group will also push Congress to re-authorize the current Choice Card program this August until more permanent reforms can take hold.
Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) Policy Director Dan Caldwell issued the following statement:
“We are encouraged by the interest both Secretary Shulkin and President Trump have expressed in pursuing the kind of choice-based VA reforms we have been pushing for years. It is up to Congress to make empowering veterans with choice over their health care a permanent reality. We look forward to seeing that happen under this new Congress in 2017.”
In an interview last month Secretary Shulkin stated “he supports veterans receiving care from the private sector if that care is superior to the care offered by the VA.”
Since his campaign, President Trump has been expressing support for a “public-private option” at the VA that would allow all veterans to choose whether they want to receive care from the VA or from private doctors.
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