The July 1 news article “Bid to Redo the Killed VA Healthcare System” is a bipartisan senator with good reason to abandon the asset and infrastructure review committee mandated by the VA Mission Act. It showed a distorted view of the actions taken by the group.
As the article reported, a recommendation to the Commission by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs called for the closure of 20 medical centers and at least 37 hospitals and emergency rooms. Not three VA medical centers. The secretary’s plans would have exacerbated the national health crisis and jeopardized the Department of Veterans Affairs’ research and education mission to serve all patients, not just veterans.
As a result, thousands of veterans (not mentioned in the article) have mobilized across the country to preserve a system that consistently provides higher quality and cost-effective care than private sector alternatives. ..
Sae Yamamoto Gordon, Richmond, California.
The writer is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute.
Veterans across the country celebrated the announcement that the bipartisan Senate coalition refused to identify members of the Veterans Affairs Department’s Assets and Infrastructure Review Committee. The same was true for VA employees, who are one-third of veterans. They are deeply interested in the mission of veterans and know how dependent they are on VA’s unique expertise and integrative medicine services.
If confirmed, the Commission has implemented a false VA plan to close or digest about one-third of the country’s VA medical centers, with millions of veterans, even in timely areas. Force taxpayer-funded private health care. Access to private care is almost impossible. The Department of Veterans Affairs made a closure plan based on outdated pre-pandemic data accused by government auditors and overlooked the billions of dollars already invested in the modernization of old Veterans Affairs facilities. ..
The VA workers we represent continue to provide excellent care. A recent Stanford University study found that veterans were 46% less likely to die when treated in the Department of Veterans’ Emergency Department than private hospitals, and veterans’ care was 21% lower for taxpayers. It was a cost.
The writer is the chairman of the AFGE National VA Council.
