On March 14, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) submitted a devastating set of recommendations to the Asset Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission, that would result in a vast privatization of Veterans’ healthcare by closing hundreds of clinics, at least three entire medical centers and adversely affect hundreds of other VA facilities.
Ahead of the announcement, AFGE condemned the plans, stating that closing VA facilities will force veterans to rely on uncoordinated, private, for-profit care, where they will suffer from long wait times and be without the unique expertise and integrated services that only the VA provides.
Every time the VA has tried to privatize veterans’ care, the private sector has charged veterans more money out of pocket for worse outcomes. The VA’s newest attempt at wholesale privatization will have the same effect. Veterans will suffer as scammers and grifters eagerly take advantage of the VA’s open checkbook.
This plan is the bitter fruit of the MISSION Act of 2018, a privatization bill that required the establishment of the AIR Commission, which must formally recommend which VA facilities should be closed, modernized, restructured, or expanded. The AIR Commission is also tasked with reviewing ways to reinvest in and expand the VA, and AFGE is ready to work with them to do so. The recommendations are based on pre-pandemic data about excess capacity and quality standards in the private sector.
On March 9, President Biden nominated eight people to serve on this commission, ranging from veterans to medical professionals and an academic scholar. Commissioners were recommended by leaders of both political parties.
If the AIR Commission were to accept what the VA proposed today, large segments of the VA health care system would be shuttered, effectively denying veterans their preferred choice in health care. Instead, our nation’s heroes would be forced to navigate the patchwork of for-profit, private care, competing with non-veterans for appointments and hospital beds and left to their own devices to find providers with the ability to treat the complex health issues with which many veterans struggle.
The commission has a year to review the VA’s recommendations, hold public hearings around the country where closures and changes are proposed, and issue final recommendations to the president and Congress.
AFGE urges the commission, the administration and lawmakers to reject all efforts to close facilities and replace VA care with outsourced care. You can visit www.afge.org/SaveMyVA to find out more and learn what you can do to mobilize against VA closures in your community.
Learn More: Click here to read an opinion piece from veterans’ advocates condemning these disastrous recommendations.
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