[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 918 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 918

Expressing support for policies that maintain a robust Veterans Health 
    Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs and do not 
   jeopardize care for veterans by moving essential resources to the 
                            private sector.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 28, 2016

 Mr. Takano (for himself, Mr. Ellison, and Mr. Grijalva) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing support for policies that maintain a robust Veterans Health 
    Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs and do not 
   jeopardize care for veterans by moving essential resources to the 
                            private sector.

Whereas Congress has promoted policies to improve the health care capabilities 
        of the Department of Veterans Affairs by providing significant increases 
        in funds to hire staff, build more facilities, and improve training;
Whereas nearly 9,000,000 veterans are enrolled in and depend on the health care 
        system of the Department of Veterans Affairs for their care, and the 
        Department completes nearly 101,000,000 outpatient appointments 
        annually;
Whereas the approximately 22,000,000 veterans of the United States are a diverse 
        group of individuals including older veterans with diseases associated 
        with aging and younger veterans with complex conditions related to 
        improved battlefield medical care, and as a group contain a higher 
        percentage of seriously wounded individuals needing complex lifelong 
        physical and mental health care, which differs from the patient mix 
        cared for by most community providers;
Whereas the RAND Corporation examined a decade of research and found that VA 
        provided care is equal to or better quality than private sector care in 
        all forty-seven quality-of-care measurements it conducted as part of an 
        independent assessment comparing VA outpatient care with comparable 
        civilian facilities;
Whereas the Department of Veterans Affairs is better equipped than most 
        community providers to coordinate complex veteran care and provide 
        continuity of resources for veterans;
Whereas employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs are dedicated public 
        servants, one-third of whom are veterans themselves; and
Whereas according to a bipartisan survey by Lake Research and Chesapeake Beach 
        Consulting 80 percent of veterans polled oppose turning health care 
        provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs into a system of private 
        sector vouchers that may not adequately cover costs: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) supports policies that provide necessary resources to 
        serve veterans by maintaining a robust Veterans Health 
        Administration;
            (2) opposes policies that would jeopardize care for 
        veterans by moving essential resources away from the Veterans 
        Health Administration and into the private sector; and
            (3) supports policies that would create integrated health 
        care networks for veterans with the Veterans Health 
        Administration, serving as the coordinator and primary provider 
        of care, and selected high-quality community partners providing 
        care when and where needed to ensure timely and convenient 
        access for all enrolled veterans.
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