Bad Day for Veterans at HVAC

Not a single veterans service organizations was asked to speak last week at the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s hearing on the final recommendations of the VA Commission on Care, though such groups represent millions of former military personnel.

Also noticeably absent from the witness list was Vietnam veteran Michael Blecker, executive director of the San Francisco veterans group Swords to Plowshares, who served on the Commission on Care, and who dissented from its final report. Blecker objected that the commission’s leading recommendation—the creation of a so-called VHA Health System network of private sector care providers—could fatally weaken veterans’ health care.  Read More