Bill to Help Veterans Receive Medical Treatment Outside VA Health Care Introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn

The Veterans Health Care Freedom Act was introduced last Friday by a group of senators led by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), whose office said the plan would improve veterans’ access to health care by allowing them to receive treatment from private hospitals and physicians without going through their local Veterans Affairs hospital.

Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined Blackburn in submitting the legislation, which would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to create a pilot program in at least four Veterans Integrated Service Networks that allow eligible veterans to be seen by any VA hospital or medical center, and would allow them to bypass standard VA referrals under specific conditions.

In a statement, Blackburn said their bill would help reverse a trend of bureaucratic morass that developed at the VA under the Biden administration.

“Under the Biden-Harris administration, veterans were discouraged from seeking community care by layers of bureaucratic red tape and a lack of accessibility to their local medical providers,” said Blackburn.

She said her legislation, “would right this wrong by empowering veterans to directly schedule appointments at non-VA medical facilities, which will remove unnecessary barriers and provide veterans with greater autonomy to access the care they need.”

The bill was submitted amid a congressional inquiry into a Mountain Home Veterans Affairs Medical Center in East Tennessee, where VA investigators last year reportedly uncovered significant sexual misconduct between medical staff, including what one December report claimed was an “orgy of at least 12 officials.” Investigators were uncertain whether the mass sex act occurred on VA property.

Blackburn wrote to the agency last month to demand answers about the state of the investigation, seeking the exact number of employees who were terminated or reassigned and decrying the reportedly soft punishments doled out to those accused.

“It is beyond reprehensible that no individual has been held meaningfully accountable for their actions,” wrote Blackburn in her December 17 letter to former VA Secretary Denis McDonough.

She wrote to the Biden administration official, “Equally troubling are the leadership and oversight failures that may have allowed such misconduct to occur.”

In the wake of the controversy, retired U.S. Army Sergeant Donald Belzer provided a video to The Tennessee Star, which he said depicted two VA staff members engaging in a sex act inside a clean supplies closet located at an Amarillo Veterans Affairs Health Care System facility in 2022.

Belzer told The Star that he filed a complaint immediately after witnessing the act from his room as a patient. He later filed a report using the White House VA Hotline created under President Donald Trump’s first administration.

After the video was published, the Amarillo VA confirmed to The Star that an investigation was underway. It did not confirm whether the investigation came as a result of the video’s publication or the complaints filed by the veteran.

Trump has nominated former U.S. Representative Doug Collins to lead the VA under his second administration, with the Georgia colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves recently pledging to work with Democrats and Republicans to improve services offered to veterans.

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].