Blumenthal: VA Mission Act is about flexible options

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., visited New London on Tuesday to tout legislation, which President Donald Trump is expected to sign, to allow veterans more flexibility to seek care outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“The act recognizes that federally qualified community health centers have a critical role to play in providing VA health care because they are already a source of medical treatment outside of the VA when it is necessary,” Blumenthal told staff at Community Health Center of New London, which could see an influx of veteran patients under the legislation.

Staff there were not able to immediately provide data on the number of patients who are veterans.

The VA Mission Act, a $55 billion package, cleared both the House and Senate by wide margins. The president has yet to sign the measure but has promised more private care options for vets. An additional 640,000 veterans each year would seek care outside the VA, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

The bill, if signed by Trump, will change the way the VA pays for private care and will leave the decision of when a vet should seek private care to VA doctors. According to a one-page summary of the legislation, it keeps the cost of private care in line with the cost of VA health care and ensures timely payment to private care providers.

The changes are intended to solve issues under the VA Choice program, which was seen as a temporary fix to the 2014 wait times scandal. The Choice program allows vets, under certain circumstances, to seek care through a community provider paid for by the VA. The Mission Act does away with the so-called 40-mile, 30day rule under the Choice program, which allowed veterans to go to a community provider when they couldn’t get an appointment at the VA within 30 days or if they lived more than a 40-mile drive from a VA medical facility.

“Those arbitrary lines really fail to measure the need of veterans and we need a more flexible kind of standard,” Blumenthal said.

A host of veterans groups, like Disabled Veterans of America and Vietnam Veterans of America, have issued their support for the measure. But there are concerns about it leading to the privatization of the VA, and that it undermines the VA health care system. The American Federation of Government Employees said in a statement that “Congress is punting on their responsibility to care for the men and women who have served our country and are taking an extremely dangerous step toward privatization.”

Blumenthal contested that, saying in a brief interview after the event at the Community Health Center that the Mission Act “in no way, and I stress no way, means privatization.” He told staff there that “the VA health care system must be preserved and even strengthened. This Mission Act is by no means in any way, shape, or form a reduction of support for the VA health care system.”