While long drives and limited access to health care are familiar burdens for many rural residents, the problem is particularly acute for veterans in those areas. They are far older than other rural residents, and far more likely to be disabled, meaning more of them are in need of medical care. And there are a lot of them—one in four veterans lives in rural areas, compared to one in five adults in the general population, according to 2015 census data.
While there is a general lack of doctors and hospitals in rural areas, the situation is even worse for veterans who rely on the VA, said John Hoellwarth, a spokesperson for American Veterans, the nation’s largest veterans’ organization. In recent years, the VA has set up more community-based clinics, and the Obama administration created a program, called Choice, that allows non-VA clinicians to serve rural veterans and receive reimbursement from the VA. But the problem persists.
Many rural veterans rely on a combination of VA health insurance and other forms of insurance, such as private insurance, Medicaid (the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled), or Medicare (federal health program for the elderly), according to census data. The number of veterans enrolled in Medicaid increased by about 340,000 under the Affordable Care Act, according to an analysis by Families USA, a nonprofit that advocates for high-quality, affordable health care.
For veterans in rural areas, “Medicaid could mean the difference between them getting care, and them not getting care,” said Andrea Callow, Families USA associate director of Medicaid initiatives.
To improve care for rural veterans, the VA needs to expand both the services it provides and the services it pays others to provide, said Margaret Puccinelli, chairwoman of the Veterans Rural Health Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin.
Read more on PBS.org.
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