The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee signaled his priorities for veterans' health care Tuesday by introducing a bill that would guarantee that former service members enrolled in Department of Veterans Affairs health care have better access to private care.
The "Complete the Mission Act," introduced by Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., would codify the access standards for veterans to qualify for community care and ensure that they receive referrals to private care covered by the VA.
Bost said he believes that VA officials are restricting access to private care -- required by the Mission Act of 2018 -- in favor of keeping veterans at VA hospitals and clinics for their care.
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"The Mission Act transformed the delivery of health care to veterans across the nation, especially in rural and remote areas of the country. But under the Biden-Harris administration, we have seen VA bureaucrats standing in the way of veterans' community care access. That is unacceptable. Following the Mission Act standards is not optional -- it is the law," Bost said in a news release Tuesday.
Under the Mission Act, veterans may seek community care if they must wait more than 20 days for a primary or mental health care appointment or face a drive of 30 minutes or longer. According to the VA, 42% of medical care, or roughly 50 million appointments, was provided in fiscal 2024 to veterans in the community -- a significant amount that VA Secretary Denis McDonough said officials must consider when planning the future of VA health care.
"We have to make sure that we aren't referring people into the community for ease on VA providers but rather for the best outcomes of veterans," McDonough said in an interview in September. "It ultimately will be driven by where is the place we can get the veteran the best care available most quickly. But also, there's a quality component."
Bost's bill would require the VA to publish average wait times for its medical centers monthly and for the department to take into account the schedules of caregivers who manage veterans' appointments. It also would establish a screening process for veterans who need substance abuse treatment and institute new reimbursement rules for private care.
"VA officials ... are on the record trying to pull care back into VA, which would diminish veterans' health care choices," according to the release.
The likelihood of the bill passing by the end of this Congress is slim, given that the session has just three weeks remaining and lawmakers are focused on passing legislation to fund the fiscal 2025 budget and the national defense authorization bill.
But next year, with Republicans holding a majority in the House and Senate and President Donald Trump in the White House, the legislation is likely to be reintroduced and has a strong chance of becoming law.
"Every veteran has earned timely options for quality health care to meet their needs. No bureaucrat is allowed to stand in the way of that," Bost said.
In a statement Wednesday, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said Congress should ensure that VA facilities have adequate staffing and updated, modern hospital facilities to make certain that veterans have access to quality care, instead of adding them to a "strained" private health care system.
"This is straight out of the Project 2025 playbook. Republicans keep pushing for expansions of community care under the guise of more 'choice,' but this doesn't serve veterans because wait times in private care are often higher than at VA because of rural hospital closures and health care workforce shortages," Takano said in a statement provided to Military.com.
Related: A Million Veterans Have Looked onto Private Care Since Mission Act Rollout
