Democratic lawmaker lambastes omnibus bill as ‘harmful’ attempt to privatize veterans health care

WASHINGTON — A comprehensive bill to expand community services for disabled and aging veterans and their caregivers has been denounced by the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee as a veiled attempt to privatize health care services and drain money from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“House Republicans are hijacking a historically bipartisan, bicameral process on a veterans package to push through their top priority: privatizing VA health care,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said of Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s 21st Century Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Juan Siscomani, R-Ariz., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and is co-sponsored by 21 Republicans. No Democrats have signed on to the bill.

But Takano said the scope of the new bill needs to be narrowed or it will result in further reductions in support for traditional VA programs.

The bill, introduced in the House on May 14, is a comprehensive piece of legislation that includes provisions from 22 bills that support veterans’ health care benefits and services in their communities and homes.

Takano called the bill a “harmful privatization package” that is expensive and fiscally unresponsible. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will cost $942 million through fiscal year 2026.

But Meredith Beck, national policy director for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, said the bill, a priority for her organization, has fallen victim to politics and “suffers from misinterpretations of its provisions.”

Meredith Beck, national policy director for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, discusses improving services for veterans and their caregivers during a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Aging and Veterans Affairs, June 5, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)

The bill has the support of veterans groups such as the American Veterans Association and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The bill includes language from the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act of 2023 that would increase coverage for home and end-of-life care for veterans who would otherwise be sent to nursing homes from 65% to 100%. The bill would also cover home health aides and provide more support for family caregivers of disabled veterans who live at home.

The bill includes measures from the CARE Act, which would train and certify navigators to help veterans and their families access community services, and the COPE Act, which would support mental health counseling for caregivers.

The bill would also prohibit the VA from overriding a physician’s non-VA treatment recommendation when it is in a veteran’s best medical interest.

Not all Democrats join Takano in opposing the bill.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, voiced his support for the bill during a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Aging and the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) speaks at a joint hearing of the Senate Committees on Aging and Veterans Affairs on improving services for veterans and their caregivers, June 5, 2024. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes)

“I want to note that the House is currently deliberating how to move forward on a package of bills negotiated by the House and Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs called the Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act. This is comprehensive legislation that will expand access to home and community-based care programs for veterans, strengthen home health staffing, and strengthen VA’s caregiver and long-term care programs,” Tester said. “I look forward to working with veterans service organizations to finally get this bill across the finish line on behalf of our nation’s caregivers.”

In 2018, Senator Tester was one of three Democrats who co-sponsored the MISSION Act, a Republican-led effort to allow veterans to obtain private health care if certain services or treatments are not readily available at VA hospitals or clinics. The other Democrats were Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Doug Jones of Alabama.

According to the VA, demand for community care has increased 15 percent each year since the passage of the MISSION Act.

The Veterans Health Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization, said the omnibus bill contains a “Trojan Horse” that would shift funding from the VA health system to private health care.

The institute said the focus on community health outside the VA will slow the modernization of VA hospitals, clinics and other facilities.

According to a March 2023 report by the Federal Accountability Office (GAO), repairs and upgrades to VA medical facilities are projected to cost $76 billion.

“The relentless outsourcing of health care from the VA to private sector providers, and the resulting depletion of the VA’s budget, has reached a tipping point that threatens the future of the nation’s largest and only veteran-centered health care system,” GAO said.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough in April cited financial challenges to supporting VA health care at a time when demand for private care is accelerating.

“which one [the VA] “Either we buy health care for veterans in the community or the VA has all the capacity in-house to provide care. This becomes difficult when veterans are referred to civilian physicians for treatment,” he said.

Takano said private health care is subject to more scrutiny than VA health care and doesn’t meet the quality standards of care veterans receive within the VA.

“This takes us away from our goal of returning more veterans to VA care,” he said.

Takano said he has asked Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, to introduce a bill to the House floor that “does not undermine the mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

“Congress must craft veterans legislation that honestly calculates the costs without sacrificing current health care and benefits,” he said.