Chet Edwards: McCain’s Veterans Access Card ‘Would Be Devastating’ To Veterans Health Care
Chet Edwards: McCain’s Veterans Access Card ‘Would Be Devastating’ To Veterans Health Care
Yesterday, ThinkProgress interviewed Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX) about Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) proposal to “give veterans the option to use a simple plastic card to receive timely and accessible care” outside of the VA health system.
Edwards noted that “virtually every major veterans organization in our country opposes” McCain’s Veterans Access Card Plan, and that even the new VA secretary called the plan “dangerous”:
It sounds good on the surface, but the reality is it would undermine the expertise, the credibility and the resources that we we have at our veterans hospital, where a vet knows he or she is going to be treated with special care or attention.
Watch it:
According to a report published by AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, contracting out health care for rural veterans on a broad scale would undermine the existing VA system, “a system of immense value to veterans”:
- “The VA’s specialized health-care programs…would suffer irreparable impact by the loss of veterans from those programs.”
- “The VA’s medical and prosthetic research program…would lose focus and purpose were service-connected and other enrolled veterans no longer present in VA health care.”
- If veterans turned to private practice, “they would lose the many safeguards built into the VA system through its patient safety program, evidence-based medicine, electronic medical records and bar code medication administration,” resulting in “lower quality of care for those who deserve it most.”
“If you look at John McCain’s record on veteran’s issues, it’s a failed one. Not according to me, but according to some of the most respected veterans organizations in America…If his record had prevailed, veterans would have poorer health care and fewer benefits than they have today,” Edwards said.
One Response to “Chet Edwards: McCain’s Veterans Access Card ‘Would Be Devastating’ To Veterans Health Care”
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As a veteran of the 2nd Iraq war who is 50% disabled due to my time in the service I am not so sure this would be that devastating. To me at least it would possibly be an improvement. I am currently working for the FAA and have Blue Cross/Shield Federal. My spine is now held together with screws and plates after the accident that occured in Saudi Arabia. I have been through probably $50K of medical procedures this year and the VA hasn’t paid one red cent. If it weren’t for my private health insureance I would be bed ridden unable to even hold a job.
Service connected disabilities are 100% the responsability of the VA to treat and care for these soldiers,sailors, airmen and marines. I can’t even get the VA to pay my copays, coinsurance or prescriptions. I attempted to get my perscriptions through the VA and its such a hassle its not worth my time.. (they even gave me a medical drug test without any kind of permission or telling me thats what the test was for)
My VA doctor last time i was in for a check up, told me ” your getting much much better care through your private insurance than you COULD EVER get at the VA” and that ” I should be thankful that I have private insurance to help me the way mine has”….
When the VA doesn’t even treat or take care of veterans coming back from Iraq/Afghanistan who are disabled, how can any changes make things worse???
The only thing that could get worse for me is for Jon McSame to get elected and take away my Federal Govt subsidized health insurance because then there will be noone to treat me. Private policies on the open market would reject me due to “pre-existing injuries”
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:14 pm