Veterans groups still left in the dark over how sweeping law will change VA

WASHINGTON — Three veterans organizations called attention this week to the ongoing lack of transparency about a sweeping law, set to take effect in the summer, that will fundamentally alter the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system.

Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars gathered congressional staff members on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to unveil their policy priorities for 2019. In a break from their normal practice, the groups listed only one “critical” issue: ensuring the VA “fully and faithfully” implements the VA Mission Act.

The law instructs VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to create new rules regulating when veterans can go outside of the VA and into the private sector for health care – potentially shifting billions of dollars for veterans’ care to private medical facilities.

Those rules, due out in March, have yet to be shared with the veterans groups who helped shepherd the Mission Act through Congress.

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