Kirk, Captain James A. Lovell, and Lovell VA Leadership Meet With Veterans on VA Improvements

Press Release

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Captain James A. Lovell (USN, RET.) and the leadership team at Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, hosted a town hall meeting last night to discuss with veterans and their families the improvements and changes the embattled Department of Veterans Affairs has made since the new Secretary, Robert McDonald, assumed his position in August. After personally meeting to discuss the VA scandal, Senator Kirk wrote a letter to Secretary McDonald in July urging him to uphold his responsibilities to improve the performance of VA operations by personally seeing that all Illinois VA centers were visited and investigated. Since then, Secretary McDonald has instructed all VA health care facilities to host town hall meetings with community members by the end of September.

"Captain Lovell was my guest because I believe it is crucial that as we work to fix our VAs, we remember the honor should be associated with caring for our vets," said Senator Kirk. "No one exemplifies American service like Captain Lovell, the namesake of this VA health center, who went to the moon and spent a total of 715 hours in space."

Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, formerly known as the North Chicago VA Medical Center, was designated for closure when Senator Kirk, then a U.S. Representative, pushed to combine the adjacent Navy and VA facilities. The merger permitted the VA to continue operating and marked Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center as the first fully integrated health care center that has partnered the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense. Senator Kirk has championed this model as the VA seeks to institute reforms to the VA health care system.

Senator Kirk has received hundreds of testimonials from veterans, their families, and employees regarding the mistreatment of patients and VA hospital employees in Illinois. Falsified wait times, secret waiting lists, and retaliation against whistle blowers were just some of the corruption uncovered this summer and shared with Senator Kirk. Since then, Senator Kirk has advocated immediate reform allowing veterans to receive care from their private doctors and ending bonuses for VA leadership, which was included in the bipartisan veterans' bill passed in July.

Captain Lovell, for whom the health care center was named, is best known for commanding the Apollo 13 mission. Lovell attended the town hall meeting alongside Senator Kirk to listen to the concerns of those in attendance and continue his support for Senator Kirk's work to ensure that Lovell is a gold-standard for the VA/DOD partnership in veteran's care. Captain Lovell has received many awards for his service and community work including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.

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