In 2014, at least 40 veterans died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA healthcare system. They were stuck on a so-called secret wait list for care. Thousands of veterans around the country thought they had the assurance of Veterans’ Affairs that they would have an appointment for both primary and specialty care within 14 days. However, that promise was not upheld, and during a Veterans’ Affairs Committee investigation in the 113th Congress, we found that VA’s officials deliberately acted to create two separate lists.
First, a falsified list showed that VA was providing timely appointments to veterans, which Phoenix VA officials sent to VA’s headquarters in Washington to show compliance with wait time standards. And then there was the actual list, which had thousands of veterans waiting over a year in some cases for their earned healthcare appointments. The largest integrated healthcare system in the country was lying, and lives were being put at risk. As leaders of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs at the time, we knew we had a problem to fix with legislative action that would ensure veterans — and their families — could trust VA to deliver the care we expected them to.
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That mission did not end with Phoenix. The reforms Congress enacted over the past decade dramatically expanded veterans’ access to care, but experience has shown there is still more work to do to ensure veterans receive timely healthcare when and where they need it. The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act represents the next step in fulfilling that bipartisan commitment.
The status quo was clearly not cutting it. VA’s system was overburdened, and veterans paid the price. A cancer patient couldn’t get their chemotherapy. An amputee never got that consultation appointment they needed to live more comfortably. A veteran struggling with mental health issues waited months for an appointment that never came. Families were torn apart because VA bureaucrats were protecting themselves to secure executive bonuses instead of the veterans they took an oath to serve.
Following months of congressional hearings, testimonials from VA officials under oath, and investigations, we laid out a path forward for how VA would deliver healthcare then and, in the future, to ensure a scandal like Phoenix never happened again. President Barack Obama signed the CHOICE Act into law in 2014 to further open the door to non-VA, private provider appointment eligibility for veterans in communities where VA can’t get the patient the timely care they have earned. This bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support (420-5) because it was the right thing to do. To put veteran patients — not bureaucracy — first. This landmark bill was our first step to change the course of VA healthcare by creating a necessary public-private partnership to ensure veterans can get the healthcare they need.
Implementing this major reform required vigorous oversight to ensure congressional intent was clear and veterans were able to access the healthcare they needed, whether that is inside or outside VA. Four years later, President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan MISSION Act into law to build on the CHOICE Act and further protect veterans’ access to even more healthcare options. These reforms weren’t privatization of the VA system. They were opening doors to care in communities across the country. They assured veterans that when VA is unable to get a patient in the door, there is another option down the street — not hours away — that will accept their VA benefits and get them the right care they need.
AMERICA’S VETERANS DESERVE A CHOICE
Nearly 12 years after Phoenix, Congress has another opportunity to open more doors for healthcare access to veterans. The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act builds on our past work to codify appointment access standards and expand — not restrict — care options. This time, it aims to fill crucial gaps in healthcare delivery that affect mental health appointment access and substance abuse treatment access, and further cement that VA bureaucrats do not control how quickly a veteran gets an appointment for the care they need.
Today’s challenges are different from those uncovered in Phoenix, but they are no less important. Growing demand for mental health services, provider shortages in rural communities, and increasing pressure on specialty care all reinforce the need to preserve and strengthen timely access to community care when VA cannot meet veterans’ needs. Veterans from Miami to Portland — and everywhere in between — can’t afford another Phoenix, and they shouldn’t have to worry about that happening again. We firmly believe that Congress must pass the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act without delay to further uphold the promise we have made to get the men and women who have served in uniform the healthcare they have earned.
Jeff Miller served as the 12th chairman of the U.S House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and was previously the representative for Florida’s 1st District. Dr. Phil Roe is an Army veteran and served as the 13th chairman of the U.S House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and was previously the representative for Tennessee’s 1st District.
