Zinke Introduces Legislation to Expand Veterans' Access to Local Health Care

Press Release

Today Congressman Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a 23-year Navy SEAL veteran, introduced the Veterans Access to Community Care Act of 2015 to expand veterans' access to prompt quality health care. The bill will ensure veterans who live in rural areas -- more than 40 miles driving distance away from the nearest VA facility -- would be able to seek treatment at local health care facilities.

"I am so proud that Montana has more veterans per capita than most every other state in the nation: one in ten of us have served our nation," said Zinke. "It's unthinkable that the federal government has failed our veterans and broken their promise after these brave men and women sacrificed so much to defend our freedoms. My legislation will help fix this though by allowing veterans who live in rural areas to access local health care facilities where they will be able to receive prompt, quality care close to home. There is more work to do to ensure the VA works for Montana veterans but this is a good first step in the right direction."

Following the exposure of long wait times, mismanagement, poor service and neglect of patients at Veterans Administration hospitals across the country last year, Congress passed a law to give veterans who live more than 40 miles away from a VA facility the option to seek treatment outside the system. Problems arose however when it was determined that a 40 mile radius was determined "as the crow flies," rather than actual driving distance. In Montana, those two distances sometimes differ by a hundred miles.

The bill is bipartisan and has received the support of both military and rural health advocates across the board, including the National Guard Association of the United States, the National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental Disability Directors, the National Rural Health Association, the National Association of Rural Mental Health and the National Council for Behavioral Health. Montana Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester introduced the companion legislation in the U.S. Senate.

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