{"id":17721,"date":"2017-12-13T21:35:47","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T21:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/12\/13\/congress-again-facing-a-looming-va-care-funding-crisis\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:48:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:48:35","slug":"congress-again-facing-a-looming-va-care-funding-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2017\/12\/13\/congress-again-facing-a-looming-va-care-funding-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress again facing a looming VA care funding crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 For the second time in less than a year, a controversial Veterans Affairs health program is just weeks away from running out of money and disrupting care for thousands of patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, for the second time over that span, lawmakers hoping for sweeping changes to VA health operations are scrambling to balance their long-term solutions with a short-term funding headache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue is the Veterans Choice Program, which allows some veterans to receive private-sector care paid for with taxpayer dollars. The program is restricted to veterans who live 40 miles from the nearest VA facility or face a 30-day wait for care there, and has been at the center of debates over how to best deliver medical care to ailing veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twice this year Congress has intervened to prolong the program, first in April to remove a later-summer expiration date for the funds, then in August to add $2.1 billion to keep the program solvent through the fall and winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, VA Secretary David Shulkin officially informed lawmakers that he expects the program to run out of money sometime in the next month. He is requesting yet more intervention from Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNearly 1.9 million veterans have sought care through the VCP since its implementation (in 2014),\u201d he wrote in a letter to congressional leaders. \u201cUnless additional funds are provided, veterans using the current VCP will be less able to access timely health care as close to their homes as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shulkin had warned as far back as August that VA would face a new funding shortfall at the start of 2018, and lawmakers used that warning as an impetus for a series of sweeping new VA health care reform proposals currently pending on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The furthest along is a measure sponsored by Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., which would add $4 billion in bridge funding to the Choice program but eventually replace it with a new community care initiative that would provide easier access to non-VA medical appointments for veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Isakson urged his congressional colleagues to quickly advance the measure, either as a stand-alone bill or as part of ongoing appropriations discussions on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\t