Excerpt from Veterans Perceptions of Va Health Care: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Veterans Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session, April 20, 1994
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 8:30 a.m., in room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Lane Evans (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Evans, Filner, Gutierrez, and Kreidler.
Also Present: Representatives Montgomery and Kennedy.
Opening Statement Of Chairman Evans
Mr. Evans. This meeting will come to order.
Today's hearing is on veterans perceptions of VA health care. In the past, this subcommittee has examined a wide range of veteran's health care issues. These have included the long waiting times that many veterans face for outpatient care, the health problems of Persian Gulf veterans and their dependents, the concerns of African-American veterans, VA care for older veterans, VA's ability to meet its mission in time of war, inequities in access to VA health care, VA health care for women veterans, and long waits for specialty care clinics. These hearings have shared a common element: How well is the VA providing services to veterans?
In large part, that is also the subject of today's hearing. I don't believe any veteran should be forced to wait months for a Va specialty care appointment. I don't believe any veteran should be expected to wait all day for routine VA outpatient care. And I don't believe any veteran who has driven hundreds of miles to the VA for a scheduled appointment should be told "Sorry, you'll have to come back tomorrow."
What I do believe is that veterans have earned, should expect and then receive first class quality and first class service from the VA, service that is second to none, service that sets the standard. But today, VA service is less than first-rate too often. In recent testimony. Dr. Headley told this committee that the Va must change and consistently provide veterans and their dependents with first class service. I can not more strongly agree.
With or without health care reform, VA's service to veterans must be improved, but the advent of reform places even more importance on the VA providing better service to veterans and doing that now. Today, the VA and health care providers are poised at the beginning of a new era in health care.
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