A New Start for Veterans’ Healthcare

In time for Veterans Day, approximately 6,000 Veterans across the Big First District will begin receiving Veteran Choice Cards in their mailboxes thanks to bipartisan reforms I helped pass through Congress in July. This is the first set of Choice Cards being sent by the Veterans Administration (VA) to Veterans residing more than 40 miles from a VA health facility. An additional estimated 4,400 cards will be sent in mid-November to Kansas Veterans who are still awaiting care after more than 30 days in the VA system.

Rarely do common-sense solutions to real problems enter into Washington’s mindset. Yet this past spring, after news broke of the horrifying negligence, preventable veteran deaths, and secret wait lists at the VA, both Washington and the American people finally started paying attention to what I have been saying for years: the VA needs real reform. As a co-sponsor of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act, I was proud to see all the work I have done on the House Veterans Affairs Committee come to fruition as the President signed into law the biggest reform the VA has seen in decades.

With eight uncles who served in the Armed Forces, it is an honor to represent our nation’s Veterans and provide oversight and policy solutions to ensure our Veterans get the care they deserve and has been promised to them. Since the first committee hearing I attended, I have been amazed at the stonewalling, the excuses, the missed deadlines, and the culture of complacency condoned and encouraged by many political appointees and high-level VA bureaucrats.  

The stories we heard coming out of the Phoenix, Arizona VA Medical Center were only further evidence of why the VA needs fundamental reform. After dozens of oversight committee hearings, finally my colleagues on the other side of the aisle understood what I had been saying for years -- why don’t we just give Veterans the freedom to choose their own doctor and their own hospital in their local communities?

Veteran Choice Cards were mailed on November 5, 2014 to approximately 6,000 Veterans in Kansas residing more than 40 miles from a VA health care facility. While these individuals are automatically eligible for non-VA care at their local community hospital or physician’s office, they must call the VA hotline to confirm authorization for outside care. Within the next 90 days, all Veterans who were enrolled in VA health care prior to August 1, 2014 or are eligible to enroll as a recently discharged combat veteran within 5 years of separation will receive cards. However, only those residing more than 40 miles from a VA health facility or waiting more than 30 days from their preferred date of care, will be authorized for non-VA care. The call center number to confirm eligibility is 866-606-8198.

For too long the VA has been more concerned with protecting their bureaucracy rather than serving our Veterans. The Choice Card Program returns the focus back to where it should have been all along: the Veteran and his/her family. As this law continues to be implemented, I will continue to press the VA for accountability and ensure proper oversight of the program.

This Veterans Day let us remember to thank those that have served our country with valor. And let us hope that this Choice Card begins to correct the wrongs our own VA has wrought upon our own heroes. Veterans Choice Cards provide a new start for those that most deserving.

Know that serving and representing those who have so selflessly devoted themselves to our country is an honor and responsibility I will never take for granted. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the implementation of this new law, please do not hesitate to reach out to my Hutchinson office at 620-665-6138.