Project

Veterans deserve more choices when it comes to their medical care. Whether they choose to receive care at the VA or from a community provider, the bottom line is that it should be up to the veteran, not the bureaucracy. Tell your lawmaker to support legislation that empowers veterans with more choice!

Veterans are promised care after serving this country in uniform. But too often, the Department of Veterans Affairs, who is tasked with delivering that care, fails.

While some veterans like the care they receive at the VA, many others experience long wait times, randomly canceled appointments, mismanaged medical records, misdiagnosed injuries, denial of necessary care, and a host of other failures.

We’re shining a light on the failures at the VA so that all Americans can call on the VA to do better.

Take a look at the latest examples of VA failures and our solutions for ensuring veterans get the care they need.

Addressing failure at the VA starts with accountability for the officials “leading” the department and ends with full choice for veterans in when and where they access their health care.

Members of Congress have presented a few solutions that would break down barriers at the VA and
empower veterans with greater access to care:

• The Veterans Health Care Freedom Act would expand access through VA benefits to care in the community by establishing a “full choice” pilot program that eventually expands out to all veterans who use VA benefits for care.
• The Veterans ACCESS Act would write into the law the standards by which veterans can access community care. Codifying these standards ensures that the VA follows the law as intended or is held accountable when it doesn’t follow the law. The bill also prioritizes addressing veteran mental health — creating a standardized process to refer veterans for priority and routine in-patient mental health care at the VA or in the community. It also mandates the VA to develop online self-scheduling portals that veterans can use and launch a three-year pilot program that offers veterans full choice at outpatient mental health and substance abuse providers without prior VA referrals.