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McCain, Sanders push for VA health care deal

Senators strive to pass bill by Friday's D-Day anniversary

The Columbian
Published: June 4, 2014, 5:00pm

WASHINGTON — A half-dozen key lawmakers were struggling Wednesday to quickly craft a compromise bill to help veterans facing long appointment waits at VA hospitals and make it easier to fire administrators who covered up the delays.

The goal is to address an uproar over Veterans Affairs health care following allegations that veterans have died while waiting to see a VA doctor. Senators hope to pass the bill before Friday’s 70th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe in World War II. Up to a dozen senators are expected to attend the ceremonies in France.

Leading the negotiations were Sen. John McCain of Arizona and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and the only self-described socialist in Congress. They met face to face early Wednesday and again later in the day.

Also involved were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the senior Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee; and Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

Sanders acknowledged that he and McCain make an unlikely pair, but he was upbeat about the prospects of quickly reaching a deal. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” he said in an interview. “McCain is serious, I’m serious and Reid is serious.”

McCain was less optimistic about a bill being passed this week. “I am not predicting anything,” he told reporters.

The main stumbling block appeared to be over when and under what circumstances veterans could turn to doctors and other providers outside the 1,700-facility VA system for what is largely free care for them.

The two lead negotiators couldn’t agree on how to define it. Sanders said the primary issue was waiting times, while McCain said it was giving veterans a choice beyond VA for getting care.

“The issue is how do we make sure every veteran in this country can get into a VA facility in a reasonable period of time. And if they can’t, what do they do?” Sanders said, answering his own question: “They go to private doctors, they go to other medical providers. And we’ve got to work out the details.”

McCain would rather let veterans who can’t get a VA appointment within 30 days or who live more than 40 miles from a VA hospital or clinic go to any doctor who participates in Medicare or the military’s TRICARE program. He complained that Sanders’ approach “has the VA bureaucrat decide whether that veteran should get the health care of their choice.”

A federal investigation into the troubled Phoenix VA Health Care System found that about 1,700 veterans in need of care were “at risk of being lost or forgotten” after being kept off an electronic waiting list. The investigation also found broad and deep-seated problems throughout the sprawling health care system, which provides medical care to about 6.5 million veterans annually.

The inspector general said at least 42 VA facilities were under investigation, including the Phoenix VA hospital, where a former clinic director said as many as 40 veterans may have died while awaiting treatment.

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