Private Care For Veterans Touted As Solution To VA’s Troubles, But Analysis Finds It Creates Longer Wait Times, Higher Costs
A ProPublica and PolitiFact investigation looks at how the VA Choice Program, often championed by conservatives as a way to improve veterans' health care, has fared over the past four years. The real winners of the program, it turns out, are not the veterans utilizing the care but the private companies that profit from expensive contracts.
ProPublica:
The VA’s Private Care Program Gave Companies Billions and Vets Longer Waits
For years, conservatives have assailed the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a dysfunctional bureaucracy. They said private enterprise would mean better, easier-to-access health care for veterans. President Donald Trump embraced that position, enthusiastically moving to expand the private sector’s role. Here’s what has actually happened in the four years since the government began sending more veterans to private care: longer waits for appointments and, a new analysis of VA claims data by ProPublica and PolitiFact shows, higher costs for taxpayers. (Arnsdorf, 12/18)
Tampa Bay Times:
The VA’s Private Care Program Gave Companies Billions And Vets Longer Waits
They said private enterprise would mean better, easier-to-access health care for veterans. President Donald Trump embraced that position, enthusiastically moving to expand the private sector’s role. Here’s what has actually happened in the four years since the government began sending more veterans to private care: longer waits for appointments and, a new analysis of VA claims data by ProPublica and PolitiFact shows, higher costs for taxpayers. (Arnsdorf and Greenberg, 12/18)
