BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.C.R. 52
85R6398 BPG-D	By: Creighton
	Veteran Affairs & Border Security
	4/24/2017
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

The Veterans Administration is charged with ensuring the health and well-being of the nation's veterans, but in recent years, its failure to adequately perform its mission has been the source of scandal.

In 2014, the United States Congress responded to unconscionable delays and denials of care at VA facilities by passing the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act, which allows access to private medical care providers for veterans who have been waiting more than 30 days for an appointment or who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility. The law is set to expire in 2017, but U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona has filed the Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016, S.2896, which enhances and expands the major reforms of the Veterans' Choice Act.

Provisions of S.2896 include allowing access to walk-in clinics without preauthorization or copayment, the expansion of VA pharmacy hours and telemedicine, and extending the Veterans Choice Card program to permit all qualified veterans to see the doctor of their choice. Moreover, the bill encourages best-practices peer review for VA facilities. The act would broaden access to timely health care while offering greater choice and flexibility to every eligible veteran.

Our nation's veterans have made enormous sacrifices to guarantee our freedoms, and although the nation can never fully repay its debt of gratitude, it can and should ensure timely access to the highest quality of medical care.

RESOLVED

That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to pass S.2896, the Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016.

That the Texas secretary of state forward official copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.