Trump’s Biggest Healthcare Priorities Hit a Massive Roadblock

The VA Choice program, which was established to provide healthcare to US veterans, has been subject to some key reforms as proposed by the House VA Health Committee in a bid to provide proper healthcare to more patients. The signing and implementation of this reform has been stalled for a long time and despite the ongoing uphill battle to rally all involved parties since December of last year, the legislation is put on hold once again this week due to opposition from House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi.

Funding for new reforms proposed to improve healthcare for US veterans was blocked by Nancy Pelosi and other democrats

VA Choice Healthcare Program

The legislation was a part of the $1.2 trillion spending bill that was being discussed in the US congress, but the finalization of the VA reforms and agreement of all parties involved was required for the bill to be passed. The legislation, which had been subjected to speedy agreements between the parties over the weekend with significant progress being made to finalize the bill, experienced a major roadblock.

After the opposition of Nancy Pelosi, the leader of House of Minority, and other Democrats, the reform was dropped altogether from the spending bill proposal. The House Democrats sounded their reservations about the reforms saying that the legislation could lead to privatization of healthcare and will probably not make VA any easier to use or reduce the waiting time for appointments.

Under the current VA Choice healthcare, only veterans that reside more than 65 kilometers away from the closest VA healthcare center or those forced to postpone their medical procedures to more than 30 days due to appointment waiting lists, are eligible for the program. Veterans under the VA program would not be subject to community healthcare programs and would be able to choose the best healthcare options available to them according to their medical requirements and the recommendation of their physicians.

Nancy Pelosi argued that the new legislation will not make VA easier to use or be effective in reducing wait times for appointments

Higher Standards of Medical Service for Vets

With the new legislation reforms, VA clinics would be subject to higher standards of medical services but lower government regulation and oversight over the healthcare infrastructure by allowing private health firms to decide the treatment procedures and clinics for the veterans. This has caused growing concern amongst House party democrats over the possibility of increased private healthcare involvement in the medical procedures of government employees, essentially privatizing the healthcare sector to a large extent.

Since the start of this week, many notable healthcare firms have commended the new reforms made to the bill. Members of the Veteran Service Organization have also written letters to the leaders of congress expressing their support for a bill, that, in their words, consolidates community care into one efficient program that ensures timely medical assistance to veterans at a higher quality standard. Many congressional leaders have expressed their disappointment over the opposition of House democrats and believe it to be an injustice towards the millions of veterans who have the served the country and now finally have the opportunity to benefit from improved healthcare services.

More Healthcare Options or more Privatization?

The reservations of the House democrats over the possibility of privatization of healthcare sectors was also echoed by a member of the Senate VA committee who believes that this bill has “privatization written all over it” and reveals that every veteran medical provider that he had been in contact with was opposed to the medical privatization threat posed by the bill.

There are also concerns that allowing private firms to decide the healthcare procedure and clinics for veterans will lead to higher medical costs and corruption in the system due to personal and private agenda involved. The VA committee debunks this by proposing more investment in the VA program which would not only raise the healthcare standards of clinics and medical services, but also be focused on providing the veterans with more healthcare options and choice of medical assistance that better suits their needs. They believe that this is not only an important step in healthcare but also one that is an absolute necessity for the honorable veteran who have served the country with dignity and bravery.