Letter to Barack Obama, President of the United States - Fee Basis Care for Vets

Letter

Dear Mr. President,

Aloha and best wishes to you and your family.

Many of our veterans urgently need medical care and they should not have to go another day without it. I have seen the wounds, both visible and invisible, of veterans I served with. To make any veteran wait for medical care is not only an emergency, it is a travesty.

Our veterans cannot afford to wait for a new head of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or for the systemic problems of the VA to be fixed. They need care now, and, as the President of the United States, it is within your power to make this happen. I'm calling on you to use your executive power to immediately allow our veterans to use their VA identification card to obtain medical care through the private health care system, with the VA paying the bill for any needed services. I urge you to take this action.

This is a crisis, and as such, private medical care must be available to veterans without VA pre-approval. Unfortunately, the so-called "emergency" measures which have recently been put in place still require veterans to undergo bureaucratic red tape to get the care they need--leaving their health and well-being in the hands of a broken system. Allowing veterans to use their VA identification card to obtain medical care through the private health system will solve the immediate problem.

No one knows exactly how long it will take for the systemic problems of the VA to be fixed. Until then, please implement this stopgap measure for the next 12 months or longer if necessary.

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