CVA Foundation® launches website to continue providing resources, educating veterans on benefits under 2018 law VA refuses to follow
ARLINGTON, Va.— On the heels of the fifth anniversary of the VA MISSION Act being signed into law, CVA Foundation® resurrected information contained in a website shut down by the VA that explains veterans’ community care options.
Last June, reports started to show that the Biden Administration was looking to limit community care options and access for veterans under the Veteran Community Care Program by rolling back VA MISSION Act’s access standards. In 2021, the VA removed the website it created to educate and inform veterans on the law, missionact.va.gov, which served as a one-stop portal for veterans seeking information about their health care benefits.
“Over the last year, the VA has taken deliberate steps to take health care decisions out of veterans’ hands and put them in the hands of the bureaucracy,” said Russ Duerstine, CVA Foundation® Executive Director.
“The VA isn’t upholding the law and educating veterans on their rights, so we took matters into our own hands. As the VA continues to take steps backward by undermining the progress made with the MISSION Act, we will do everything we can to educate veterans on their rights and empower them to make the best decisions for their own health care needs.”
Background
Under the VA MISSION Act access standards, veterans across the nation have the option to seek timely and quality health care in their communities when their VA is unable to provide that care. Demand for care outside the VA has risen since the VA MISSION Act became law in 2018.
Even with the MISSION Act in place, barriers remain to veterans receiving access to the health care they earned, and there is currently an effort to constrain some health care choice for veterans through the VA.
- Since COVID, in addition to walling off community care as an option for veterans, the VA canceled or delayed over 20 million appointments for veterans.
- TheVA this year announced it will no longer adhere to the VA Accountability Act, a 2017 law designed to allow it to quickly discipline and fire employees.
- FOIA documents revealthe VA is using outdated and manipulative scheduling practices to give the appearance that veterans can receive appointments within the wait and drive time standards.
The VA is taking deliberate steps to take health care decisions out of veterans’ hands and put them in the hands of the bureaucracy.
- Community care is very popular with veterans. According to the VA’s FY2024 budget submission, overall satisfaction with Community Care was at 83 percent in 2022. Conversely, the overall rating for VA hospitals was only 69 percent.
- Meanwhile, The VA’s FY2025 advance request budget slashes community care funding by cutting discretionary funding over 34 percent and overall funding by 19 percent from FY 2024.
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