GOP Chairmen Launch Effort to Expand Veterans' Access to Private Doctors
The bill, introduced Tuesday afternoon by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., would solidify the VA's existing standards to qualify for community care. It would also go further and expand access by requiring the VA to take into account the veteran's preference for where they get treatment.
"When VA inserts itself as the sole decision-maker and plays politics with veterans' health, people get hurt, cancer patients can't get their treatment, and families spend more time arguing with bureaucrats than focusing on their mental health -- it's high time we change that," Bost said in a written statement.
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The bill is similar to one Bost introduced at the end of last year to signal his priorities for this year. But the introduction of the new bill formally kicks off what is expected to be a marquee debate during the Trump administration over the future of the VA's community care program that allows veterans to see private doctors using VA funding.
One of the legislative achievements President Donald Trump frequently touts about his first term is the Mission Act, which overhauled how the department offers private-sector care to veterans. The law led the VA to say veterans can go to private doctors if they face a wait time for VA doctors of more than 20 days for a primary or mental health care appointment or face a drive of 30 minutes or longer -- though those standards are not dictated in the law.
During the Biden administration, VA officials attributed a ballooning medical budget in large part to the expansion of community care under the Mission Act. In fiscal 2024, about 42% of VA medical care, or roughly 50 million appointments, was provided through community care.
Republicans, by contrast, accused the Biden administration of undermining the Mission Act and blocking eligible veterans from using the community care program.
In an effort to ensure the access to private doctors promised by the Mission Act, the bill introduced Tuesday by Bost and Moran would enshrine into law the VA's existing standards for accessing community care.
Referrals for community care would also have to consider "the preference of the covered veteran for where, when, and how to seek hospital care, medical services or extended care services," according to the bill text.
The bill, dubbed the Veterans' Assuring Critical Care Expansions to Support Servicemembers Act, or the ACCESS Act, would also expand eligibility for veterans to seek care at private residential mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities.
The introduction of the bill comes after Bost and Moran focused a couple of their earliest hearings of this congressional session on community care. At the hearings, lawmakers heard from veterans and advocates who said the VA was denying veterans access to private doctors despite a desperate need.
"The obtuse, heartless interactions with the VA over and over are why veterans do not seek care," Paige Marg, whose Air Force veteran husband twice attempted suicide in 2023 while struggling get a mental health care appointment and was later denied a referral to a residential treatment program, testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday morning. "It is why veterans suffer in silence. And it is ultimately why veterans kill themselves, because the entity that is supposed to help them shows them again and again that they do not matter."
The bill introduced Tuesday is endorsed by several major veterans groups, including Wounded Warrior Project; The American Legion; the Veterans of Foreign Wars; Paralyzed Veterans of America; Vietnam Veterans of America; and Disabled American Veterans, according to news releases from Bost and Moran's offices. It is also endorsed by conservative groups that have sought to expand private health care for veterans, including Concerned Veterans for America, according to news releases.
While Democrats have expressed sympathy for veterans struggling to get appointments and have said they are generally supportive of community care, they have also accused Republicans of wanting to expand the private care program in order to undermine the VA's in-house medical care and fully privatize the VA.
"Republicans are insistent that they don't want to privatize VA, but they complain about the money that VA is spending on health care services," Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said at a hearing last week. "Where do my colleagues think the money to pay private health care providers is coming from? It is the same pot of money, and we need to address how private care is siphoning off funding from VA direct care."
At his confirmation hearing last week, VA secretary nominee Doug Collins promised to improve the community care program while ensuring "there will always be a VA health care system for the veteran."
Related: VA Secretary Nominee Pledges to Modernize Hospital Infrastructure, Promote Community Care
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