VA San Diego Health Care System; San Diego, Calif

VA San Diego Health Care System; San Diego, Calif Dept. of Veterans Affairs

Don’t Privatize the Veterans Health Administration

The healthcare industry wants to take over a system that – for all its problems – still outperforms the private sector.

Next month, the congressionally established Commission on Care will release its final recommendations on how to best reorganize the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Expect the report to call for “bold” reforms and to lay out a new plan to “improve” health care for veterans. Whatever the language, it will be critical to see this for what it is: a call to privatize the VHA.

It is important to understand how the Commission arrived at this conclusion. Following the wait-time problems at the Phoenix VA, a bipartisan group of 28 Congressional representatives, myself included, passed a compromise bill to triage the immediate needs of veterans waiting for care and to begin to address the systemic issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and VHA. That legislation also established the Commission on Care, which was tasked with “examining veterans’ access to Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare.” Over the last two years, the Commission has held its meetings and heard testimony largely out of the public eye. As a result, without anyone noticing, a group of for-profit hospital executives and representatives of a Tea Party veterans group aligned with the Koch donor network has quietly attempted to lead the Commission to a point where its final recommendation is the privatization of the VA’s healthcare system. Put another way, the commissioners who stand to benefit the most from privatization are the ones leading the charge to dismantle the VHA.

Let’s be perfectly clear: privatizing the VHA will neither improve access to care nor reduce total costs. Instead, it will turn public revenue into private profits while shifting the financial burden onto taxpayers and veterans, whose total cost of care may not be fully covered by any new voucher program. It will also likely to reduce, not improve, access to care. One of the strengths of the VHA is that it can provide a variety of services in one location, limiting the need for travel to multiple doctors’ offices. Eliminating that convenience will only increase the burden on our veterans, particularly those in rural areas. Most importantly, privatization would ignore the wishes of the men and women this system is meant to serve: a survey conducted for the Vet Voice Foundation found that 64% of veterans oppose privatization.

To be sure, the VHA faces a number of systemic issues, but it is important to remember that this is a system that treats millions of veterans every year, and it treats them exceptionally well. It is not, as the commissioners supporting privatization would like you to believe, “seriously broken.” When tested, the VHA has proven that it is up to the challenge of caring for today’s injured servicemen and women. Independent research by MITRE, RAND and Grant Thornton/McKinsey found that the VHA performed the same or better than non-VA providers on 12 of 14 inpatient care effectiveness measures. The VHA also did the same or better on 16 outpatient effectiveness measures, compared with commercial health maintenance organizations.  

If the Commission on Care would like to see serious improvements at the VHA, it should use this opportunity to recommend legitimate funding increases for the agency. Today, the VHA faces mounting pressure to deal with injuries, including cases of traumatic brain injury and traumatic stress disorder, at a rate its people have never before experienced. For years, Republicans in Congress have deliberately underfunded the VA and VHA, leaving the agency unable to hire the doctors, nurses, and administrative staff it needs to care for our returning servicemen and women. No other agency is asked to do so much with so little, and we have recently seen the tragic consequences of continued underinvestment. Only by providing the VHA with the resources it needs — while continuing to ensure that they are used correctly — can we give our veterans the care they deserve.

We must not be swayed by the misleading claims of a group that is only interested in its bottom line. The VHA is and should continue to be an example of what good government can do. Congress should ignore the calls of the healthcare industry and instead give the VHA the tools, resources and time it needs to provide our veterans with the care they have earned. It is my hope that the Commission will take this opportunity to truly try and improve healthcare for our veterans.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.