Denver Post - Private Medical Care for Veterans Proposed During Aurora Forum
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By David Olinger
A national veterans group is calling for radical reforms within the Department of Veterans Affairs -- including a gradual transfer of medical care from the Veterans Health Administration to private doctors.
The group, Concerned Veterans for America, brought its 100-page proposal, Fixing Veterans Health Care, along with a former Democratic congressman and an incumbent Republican to a meeting Friday at the University of Colorado Hospital campus in Aurora.
The VA has been under fire after a series of high-profile missteps, from veterans who died waiting to see a doctor in Phoenix to an Aurora hospital costing five times the original estimate.
Unlike some VA critics, Concerned Veterans for America does not favor abolishing the Veterans Health Administration. It says many veterans have been well cared for at VA facilities and should continue to enjoy that option.
But the group also says extensive polling of veterans found deep dissatisfactions with the existing system.
For example, 90 percent of veterans responded that the VA should be reformed. Eighty-six percent said eligible veterans should be able to choose a private doctor, and 77 percent said veterans should be given that choice even if out-of-pocket costs are a little higher.
Jim Marshall, a co-chair of the group's task force and former Democratic congressman from Georgia, told veterans that the VA has turned into "a monstrous bureaucracy that sucks up an awful lot of money," employing 310,000 people while three-fourths of its vacancies are clinical positions.
Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, also advocated giving veterans more flexibility to seek medical care outside the VA.
"I think it's very important for the veterans to have a choice," he said.
The VA hospital under construction east of the university campus, now estimated to cost $1.73 billion, drew bipartisan fire.
Coffman suggested a criminal investigation of VA officials responsible for the project. As costs escalated, were VA officials "lying under oath before Congress? Clearly they knew," he said. "Did people line their pockets?"
Marshall said Congress showered the VA with so much money during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that "some people think they can build palaces."
Next week, members of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs are coming to Colorado for a hearing on the status of the Aurora hospital.
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