In Spring 2016, a report from the Veterans Administration (VA) Office of the Inspector General revealed that 21 of 38 VA medical facilities investigated were using improper scheduling for appointments. This is similar to a practice uncovered two years prior. In 2014, forty veterans died while waiting to be treated by the VA. In an investigation that culminated in Phoenix, Arizona, it was discovered that VA medical facility staff created secret waitlists instead of entering veterans into the actual scheduling system, and thereby hid actual wait times. The scandal exposed a pattern of practice used in VA medical facilities nationwide.
In response to the scandal, Congress passed The Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act (“Veterans Choice”) in 2014, with hopes it would improve veterans’ access to and quality of healthcare. Essentially, the law requires the VA to authorize veterans registered in the VA health care system as of August 1, 2014 to receive non-VA care if they live more than forty miles from the nearest VA medical facility or if the treatment they need has a wait time of more than thirty days.
Most VA patients do not have war wounds; they have “worn-out knees and [backs] from lugging heavy gear up and down,” according to Irvin Bishop Small, who served in the U.S. Navy for ten years and lives forty-five miles from the nearest VA medical facility. The Veterans Choice program was created to help veterans like him. When the doctor prescribed physical therapy and acupuncture to Small, he reached out to the nearest Choice private medical facility. He was told he would get a call back, but it was him who ended up calling back, over and over again. Because of the lack of necessary treatment, Small’s chronic pain sometimes drove him into deep depression. Legislators that created the program now admit that thousands of veterans are in the same situation.
According to a June 2016 report released by the Commission on Care, the unit Congress charged with implementing the program, Veterans Choice is thoroughly flawed in its design and operation. The report showed some racial and ethnic health care disparities and private medical facilities refusing to treat veterans because of delayed reimbursements, if any at all. It also showed aggravated wait times in some VA medical facilities. Still, it has produced some positive results. A survey showed that 90 percent of veterans were satisfied with the appointments’ timeliness. Still, VA Secretary Robert A. MacDonald said that, “until all veterans say they are satisfied…nobody at VA will be satisfied.”
Meanwhile, presidential candidates are making promises to solve the problem. Republican Nominee Donald Trump pledged that he would expand the Veterans Choice program to allow veterans to choose their doctor and medical facility, regardless of whether they are affiliated with the VA. J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, and a spokesman for opposing candidate Hillary Clinton, disputes that Trump’s proposed plan would lead to the VA’s privatization and private corporations making profit off of veterans suffering.
Many oppose increasing privatization because they believe that VA staff, which are largely made up of veterans themselves, will understand veterans’ needs better than a private caretaker. Bill Breeden, a Vietnam veteran, said that veterans “talk the same language…same issues, [and are] concerned about veterans’ issues.” It is curious to see if promises will be fulfilled and whether this time, the VA will create a system that actually gives each veteran a choice.