Veterans from World War II to the Iraq War packed the Kenai Visitors Center Monday night to take part in a Veterans Administration Field Hearing.
The overall message to U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan and VA Undersecretary David Shulkin was that the nationally implemented Choice Act has only added confusion and frustration to veterans’ healthcare on the Kenai Peninsula.
Jim: “When I spoke to Choice, [they said] Mr. Harping I have absolutely no idea what you’ve called about. I said because the letter said so. So I insisted that they do something because my appointment is coming up in three weeks and I have to give them a seven day notice. Then I received an unsolicited letter from Choice saying I need to call them again.”
Linda: “My nickname for it is no choice.”
Sen. Sullivan: “I’m confused, they called you 12 times for what?”
Linda: “We need to make that appointment for you. And then by the time we’re done, for some reason they say that they don’t have any paperwork on it. I say then how did you know to call me to make the appointment? That makes no sense.”
After the hearing Shulkin summarized what he understood from the testimony.
Shulkin: “People uniformly value and appreciate the care they’re getting at the local Kenai Veterans office and the message was that we need to give them more local control because that’s where the trust is. Secondly I think we learned a lot about the difficulty in communication and getting appointments, people need to get their appointments sooner and should not be left trying to guess when their appointments are going to come.”
He and Sen. Sullivan also heard from healthcare providers on the difficulties of the Choice Act.
Shulkin: “What was encouraging to me is that the local healthcare providers in Kenai and the area want to work and take care of veterans and that’s what we want to do, we want to be partnering with the local community providers. So I was very pleased that they showed up tonight, that they had an opportunity to talk with us and that they expressed their commitment to want to work with us, despite the difficulties of the Choice program.”
Shulkin said that the VA will submit a plan to Congress by November 1 detailing how to improve care for veterans based on the public testimony.