VA overhaul bill heads to Trump for signature
Private care measure gets huge bipartisan boost
WASHINGTON – The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation Wednesday that would pave the way for a major overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the way veterans access health care in the private sector at government expense.
The measure’s passage by a vote of 92-5 is a bipartisan legislative victory for President Trump, who is likely to sign the bill into law within days.
That would deliver on a campaign promise by the president, who pledged to expand veterans’ opportunities to get private-sector care.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was so confident in its passage, he issued a statement last week declaring the bill would reach the president’s desk before Memorial Day.
“This bicameral, bipartisan bill contains significant reforms to the Department of Veterans Affairs which will increase and strengthen the health care and community care options available to America’s veterans,” he said.
The House passed the bill last week by 347-70.
The bill would combine seven programs governing non-VA medical care, including the so-called Choice program, which was created in 2014 after veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix VA.
The legislation would task VA leadership with creating rules for when veterans could go to private doctors instead of the VA. Criteria to be considered include wait times for VA appointments, quality of VA care and distance from a VA facility.
Known as the VA MISSION Act, the legislation would create a commission to review VA facilities and recommend which ones are worth repairing, where new ones should be built and which ones should be closed and care provided instead in the private sector.
The bill would expand benefits to help cover the cost of caregivers in the homes of injured pre-9/11 veterans. Such benefits have been provided to only post-9/11 veterans.
The bill includes incentives to help the VA hire health care providers. It would allow the agency to provide scholarships to medical students in exchange for their pledging to work at VA. About 33,000 positions are unfilled at the agency.
More than two dozen veterans’ groups support the legislation, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Vietnam Veterans of America.
It wasn’t a smooth ride to passage. After months of negotiations, Trump fired VA Secretary David Shulkin, in part because of his work on the bill. Shulkin supported a version that administration officials said didn’t go far enough to offer veterans more private health care choices.
Last week, the president announced his intent to nominate acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to be the next secretary.
Wilkie is undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness at the Pentagon.