Poll: Nine in Ten Veterans Want Reform and Choice At The VA
CVA-Commissioned Tarrance Group Poll Contradicts VA Assertion That Veterans Do Not Want Health Care Choice
Arlington, Va. – A nationwide poll of 1,000 veterans commissioned by Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), and conducted by The Tarrance Group, confirmed that military veterans overwhelmingly favor reform and increased choice in the delivery of veterans’ health care – in spite of recent assertions from the VA that they do not.
The polling revealed that ninety percent (90%) of veterans favor efforts to reform veteran health care in the U.S., and eighty-eight percent (88%) of veterans say that it is either “extremely” or “very important” to increase health care choices for veterans. Most telling, ninety-five percent (95%) of veterans feel it is either “extremely” or “very important” to ensure veterans get the best possible care, even if that means getting that care outside of a VA facility. The data is clear and indisputable: no matter what the VA says, veterans want choice.
The findings also come a day after President Obama’s FY2016 Budget Request sought to strip funding from the Veteran Choice Card Program he signed in to law just 6 months ago and after VA officials claimed that the use of the choice card is not the “preferred choice” of veterans.
The poll results also come in advance of the release of CVA’s Fixing Veterans Health Care Policy Report—the product of a Taskforce consisting of experts in the fields of veterans’ affairs and health care that has been crafting policy proposals over the past six months. The report is to be released at a summit on February 26 in Washington, D.C.
“The findings of this nation-wide, representative sample of veterans’ preferences confirms what has been at the heart of the Fixing Veterans Health Care Taskforce’s mission from the beginning—that veterans overwhelmingly favor VA reform and want more health care choice,” said Pete Hegseth, CEO of CVA. “The Fixing Veterans Health Care Policy Report that will be issued at our summit on February 26 is already drawing the attention of congressional leaders, and this poll reinforces that the principles on which the policy proposals were crafted are, in fact, what America’s veterans want. Unfortunately, President Obama and the VA remain out of touch with these wishes, as the President’s recent proposal to gut the choice card program that 90% of veterans support demonstrates. As CVA and the Taskforce continue our push for concrete reform legislation in the 114th Congress, we hope that lawmakers will keep in mind that veterans have made their voices heard, and that these proposals represent what veterans need and want in the delivery of their health care.”
To view results of the poll, click here. Additional poll data, including questions and responses, is available upon request.
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Concerned Veterans for America is a non-partisan, non-profit, 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for policies that will preserve the freedom and liberty we and our families so proudly fought and sacrificed to defend.