A $55 billion Veterans Affairs reform bill is headed to the white house for approval. The VA Mission Act of 2018 is a combination of bills that could change the way veterans receive care and where.
Last week the senate passed the VA Mission Act of 2018, a bill that would allow veterans to seek care at private doctors at a taxpayer expense.
“You can’t build a VA medical center wherever there is a veteran. So you have to let the veterans go where the care is closer to home,” said Florida Congressman Neal Dunn (R)
Dunn supports the bill saying it would give more options to veterans in the Panhandle who have to travel miles to receive care.
“We can’t have our veterans traveling that distance for all of their care, it just doesn’t make sense,” said Dunn.
Dunn will focus his efforts on veteran health now that he got a new job in the house.
“We are trying to improve the VA health system and in fact on Wednesday I took over as chairman of that sub committee in the house,” said Dunn.
His first move will be to combat the opioid epidemic, saying one of the bills in the mission act will create a database for health care providers that will allow them to see all the patients prescriptions rather than only the ones they prescribe.
“This is something we’ve done in private practice already so it’s high time the VA adopted that,” said Dunn.
Next the bill heads to the white house. The VA mission act of 2018 passed the senate by a vote of 92 to 5. President Trump has said he will sign it.
