Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
The debt limit deal's protection of investments in veterans’ health could just be the beginning of congressional action on veterans' health this session.
- Veterans’ health is often siloed from other health policy conversations, so to help you keep track of the policies on the legislative table so far, we rounded up some key veterans’ health bills to keep an eye on in Congress.
Mental health: Veterans are directly affected by the ongoing mental health crisis, and in fact experience higher rates of suicide than the general population.
- Sens. Jerry Moran and Kyrsten Sinema’s Veterans’ HEALTH Act would expand veterans’ access to community care, including inpatient mental health care and residential rehabilitation substance use treatment.
- Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chair Jon Tester and Sen. John Boozman have also introduced legislation to evaluate the relationship between VA benefits usage and suicide outcomes.
- Meanwhile, the Senate committee has advanced a bill to improve mental health resources for veterans transitioning back to civilian life.
- A bipartisan House bill with 33 co-sponsors would establish a mental health task force within the Department of Defense, and separate bipartisan legislation would require the VA to study the quality of mental health care provided through its system.
Access to care: The Senate committee in February also advanced the VA CAREERS Act, which aims to ease provider shortages in the VA by updating the payment system, expanding reimbursement eligibility and paying for licensure exams for future VA clinicians.
- Congress is also weighing a bipartisan, bicameral bill to pilot a program in which the VA would pay for veterans to receive assisted living care. The American Health Care Association, a major nursing home trade group, supports the legislation.
- Tester led a bill this year to authorize the VA to research the health effects of medicinal cannabis for veterans. The bill failed a Senate vote, but advocacy groups hope to see it come up for discussion again this session.
Electronic health records: EHRs have become a hot topic in veterans’ health after multiple issues with the VA-used Oracle Cerner system, including mistakes that have caused veterans’ deaths.
- Tester has introduced the EHR Program Reset Act of 2023, which would overhaul the entire EHR system, require certain metrics to be met of any EHR system and ensure that Oracle Cerner has fixed certain issues before moving forward. There’s also a bipartisan House version.
- House Veterans Affairs members on both sides of the aisle had put out competing EHR oversight bills this year before assembling the bipartisan package.
- House Veterans Affairs Chairman Mike Bost co-sponsored a bill that would terminate the VA’s EHR system and introduced another that would freeze its use until certain safety objectives were met.
- House committee ranking member Mark Takano filed a bill in response that would require the VA to contract with an independent entity for oversight of its information technology programs, including the EHR system.
VA Oversight: The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee advanced a bill this spring that would require more transparency from VA medical facilities on wait times and prevalent health concerns among patients.
- Additionally, the PACT Act, a bill passed last year that improves benefits and health care for veterans exposed to toxins, is now in its implementation phase. The House has already held an oversight hearing on the policy's rollout.
What we're watching: Rep. Warren Davidson introduced a bill in January that would require members of Congress and their staff to get their health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
- “When I talk with veterans, they always stress the urgency surrounding veterans' healthcare issues, particularly for mental health services. My bill will ensure members of Congress have a stake in improving the VA healthcare system,” Davidson said in a news release.
What else we’re watching: The Major Richard Star Act would expand disability and retirement benefits for veterans who were medically retired because of injuries suffered during service.
- The bill has 65 co-sponsors in the Senate and 317 in the House, and lead sponsor Rep. Gus Bilirakis recently filed a motion to place the bill on the consensus calendar in the lower chamber.
- Legislative advocacy on health for female veterans may ramp up later this year, too, Jose Ramos, vice president of government and community relations for the Wounded Warrior Project, told Axios.
Do you work on veterans’ health? What are we missing? Respond to this email to let us know what else should be on our radar!
