Nikki Haley: Force Congress to fix veterans’ healthcare
As the wife of a combat veteran, I have a bone to pick with Congress.
Our heroes put everything on the line to protect our country and our freedoms. These brave men and women in uniform fight for America with all they have. They deserve leaders who fight even half that hard for them.
To be fair, Congress has tried. Over the past decade, bipartisan majorities have passed several bills aimed at fixing and reforming the Department of Veteran Affairs. But it’s not enough. To this day, the VA falls short of serving the heroes who stood tall for our freedom.
This crisis is real, as veterans have told me from New Hampshire to South Carolina. One recent study shows veterans wait an average of 29 days for a primary care appointment at a VA facility. Many of these men and women have serious injuries, both physical and mental, from their time in the service. They should be seen right away, not pushed away by the VA.
Congress was supposed to fix this mess. Federal law allows veterans to seek care outside the VA with a private doctor when wait times exceed 20 days for primary care and mental healthcare, and 28 days for specialty care. But under the Biden administration, the VA may be manipulating wait times to make them appear shorter than they really are, preventing vets from accessing private care. Concerned Veterans for America reports that the VA also cancels and reschedules appointments to restart the wait time clock and keep veterans in the VA system.
It gets worse. Mental health services and substance abuse treatment for veterans are urgently needed for a growing number of veterans. They’re suffering from PTSD, depression, and other serious illnesses and challenges, but have trouble getting the care they need.
Veterans struggling with substance abuse can only seek help from a private facility, under certain circumstances, like if wait times for an inpatient bed at a VA facility exceed 30 days. That’s insane. Twenty-nine days could be a death sentence for someone struggling with substance abuse. Even one or two days could be too long.
The veteran community is facing a suicide epidemic that is nearly double the general population. No veteran should survive the battlefield overseas only to die from depression or overdose at home.
In New Hampshire, where nearly 8 percent of the adult population is made up of veterans, the situation is even more dire. New Hampshire’s suicide rate for veterans is even higher than the national average for veterans.
All these problems can be traced to the same, sad reality: The Department of Veterans Affairs is a bureaucratic maze, still plagued by red tape, delays, and lack of transparency. It would be challenging for the most experienced government lawyer to navigate this mess, let alone our veterans who are transitioning from military to civilian life. I would like to see members of Congress try to navigate the VA system and get the care they need.
In fact, that is exactly what I’m proposing.
Members of Congress should live with the same VA healthcare as our veterans. They should experience the same delays, get the same bureaucratic runaround, and endure the same frustration as our heroes. They always say they understand what veterans are going through. They don’t. But with my proposal, they will.
After decades of well-meaning but insufficient reforms, the best way to get Congress to act is to make it personal. Let’s make Congress a stakeholder in our veterans’ care.
This is personal for me, my husband, and all those he served with and their families. His brothers and sisters in arms represent the best of America. They deserve the best healthcare in the world. So let’s stop making empty promises and get to work.
Nikki Haley is a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, former South Carolina governor and a Republican candidate for president.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Nikki Haley: Force Congress to fix veterans’ healthcare
