Northern Maine veterans
prefer ARCH over Choice
To the Editor;
Attention veterans the medical services offered to veterans to be referred to specialist outside the VA currently known as the ARCH (Access Received Closer to Home) program is once again in the cross hairs of our government snipers, and this time they intend to pull the trigger.
The federal government plans to defund the ARCH program for a one size fits all policy to meet the needs of all veterans no matter where you live. The new program (Choice) was made in the hopes as a way to solve the health care problems for veterans.
Now the fact that our lawmakers are working on a plan is by far a major step in the right direction, however the main problem they are making in the new program is by adding a third party health insurance management company to oversee the process that was already done by the VA.
Under the ARCH program the local VA representatives worked directly for the veteran with the outside doctor or specialist, allowing for a smooth transition of services, records, and payments for the appointments. Most importantly the ARCH program gave the veterans a more meaningful conversation about their health care because they were speaking locally and not to someone in another state.
Under the Choice program veterans will struggle to navigate an even bigger web paperwork, and phone calls in scheduling, record keeping and even payment. Choice has already been documented to increase waiting times as well as having many veterans getting bad credit ratings because of the company not paying for services in time.
We all agree that our great nation owes its veterans the best care possible, so how do we think having more bureaucrats involved could ever be a good thing? Not to mention I cannot imagine this insurance company will provide their services for free, so to me this is just more money being thrown at top down management in a hope that it works.
Here is an idea: let’s eliminate the middleman and apply the costs to funding more services, VA doctors, not more paper pushers.
Please help our leaders understand that all veterans deserve more than just basic care, they deserve the best care without confusing programs or paperwork. The federal government needs to stop placing veterans’ health care in the same costs categories as welfare. In fact they need to stop trying to relate military service into the same categories as civilian work period.
What the government is doing to repay veterans for their service should be the big question? The answer should always contain all possible solutions instead of just making new rules or continuing to spend money to subsidize people who do not contribute to anything, or anyone, because they decided to live off the system and not work.
I find it disgraceful that people crossing our borders illegally, coming in as refugees, and our prisoners are receiving better medical care then our veterans who defended them.
I do not care if we call the program ARCH, Choice, Choice plus or Arch plus. Any name will work as long as it delivers a system of quality care for our vets while allowing direct contact from the Vet to VA. As proven with ARCH this can be done without additional people in the chain deciding on if the vet needs care or not.
Let’s find solutions to enhancing and expanding services instead of enacting new plans. Having more people oversea what others are already doing that is just big government getting bigger in funding needless admin jobs.
Arch works, so let our lawmakers know we want to use the best practices from ARCH and apply what works here in the county. Ask them who will take the blame if Choice fails? I would venture to say it won’t be the insurance company, they will just walk away and blame the VA.
County vets contact our leaders, your veterans service organizations and your fellow veterans and let everyone know that you want the best practices of ARCH to be the staging ground for the entire country because here in northern Maine we are always leading the way as a community that takes care of each other.
Roger Felix
U.S. Army Ret.
Caribou
