By PETE HEGSETH
Last August President Obama signed the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, the most significant reform to the Department of Veterans Affairs in decades.
Seven months later, the Veterans Choice Program, a core part of the law designed to help veterans see private doctors, is floundering. Yet instead of fixing the many problems, the Obama administration is using them as an excuse to divert funding from the program.
After the VAâs waiting-list scandal broke early last year, with reports that at least 19 veterans died at VA hospitals in 2010-11 due to delays in diagnosis and treatment, there was bipartisan consensus that change was needed to address the VAâs deep bureaucratic dysfunction. In addition to more accountability for VA facilities and staff, Congress wanted expanded private health-care options for eligible veterans.
Particularly promising was the new Veterans Choice Program. It was designed to give veterans who lack timely or convenient access to VA
health care the ability to seek compensated care from a private provider. Since November, 8.6 million Veterans Choice cards have been mailed out, but according to the VA only 27,000 veterans have made appointments for private medical care using the cards.
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