Arizona veterans tell McCain that VA is better, but not cured at town hall
- Sen. John McCain said his top priority for veterans is building more flexibility into Choice Cards
- McCain criticized the VA for firing just one administrator since the care scandal erupted last year
- Senatorial staff members collected information from 42 local veterans seeking assistance
A town-hall meeting with U.S. Sen. John McCain about veterans issues started with a question Thursday.
KFYI-AM (550) radio talk-show host Mike Broomhead asked for a show of hands among veterans who had waited for more than 60 days for care at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility.
About a third of the roughly 200 people in attendance at the Burton Barr Central Library in central Phoenix raised their hands.
Broomhead asked them to keep their hands up if they had waited for 90 days, then 120 days, then six months.
“We still have a hand up. I have to tell you that the first time we did this a year and a half ago, the hands that went up were almost every hand in the room, and not many hands went down until we got to the one-year mark,” Broomhead said.
The unscientific survey underscored the overall impression of McCain and veterans in attendance: The VA has improved since last year’s national scandal broke in Phoenix. But it is not cured.
“My assessment is that the VA has made some progress,” McCain said. “But I also think, in all candor, that we’ve got a long way to go.”
Veterans from the Korean War to the post-9/11 conflicts ticked off several lingering issues. Among them: restrictions on the Veterans Choice Card, which allows some veterans to go outside the VA system for certain types of care; bureaucracy within the agency, which makes it difficult for patients to get immediate care; and an overreliance by VA personnel on narcotics to treat pain.
McCain, R-Ariz., noted a few issues of his own, saying the agency is guilty of wasteful spending. He also noted that just one VA administrator has been fired in relation to last year’s scandal, and there is still an unacceptable number of suicides by former military members.
Addressing limits on the Choice Card is his top priority, McCain said.
The program was rolled out last year in the wake of the scandal. It allows veterans to get health care from non-VA doctors. Veterans are eligible if to use it if they have waited for more than 30 days for VA care and they live more than 40 miles from a VA medical facility.
The issue for many veterans in rural Arizona is that they live within 40 miles of VA outpatient clinics, but the clinics near them do not provide the full spectrum of services veterans need, said state Rep. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City.
There are other problems, he said. For example, often veterans in Lake Havasu City are told to access VA-affiliated dentists in Prescott, which is three hours and more than 200 miles away.
“To get your teeth cleaned, it’s only $70 if you did it local on the fee base, but if they make you go all the way to Prescott, it’s free, but they give you $154 in travel pay. So, I mean, it’s ridiculous,” Borrelli said.
McCain said his top priority for veterans is to improve the Choice Card program, to revise the 40-mile limitation and make it available to all veterans on a permanent basis.
“A veteran should be able to have Choice Card, and if they don’t want to go to the VA, then they should be able to get the provider of their choice. And frankly, that would save the taxpayers dollars, rather than increase it,” McCain said.
Throughout the meeting, McCain referred veterans with issues to members of his staff, who logged their information into laptop computers. Staff members met with 42 veterans during the event, said Gina Gormley, McCain’s state director.
McCain said his staff has advocated for 3,500 veterans from across the country so far this year, an increase from previous years.