Military.com: “While controversy swirls around last week’s mass firing of 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs’ employees, a far greater threat to veterans’ health care is going completely unnoticed. Powerful leaders in Congress have quietly unveiled their plan to gut VA-delivered care, wrapped in the misleadingly titled “Veterans’ ACCESS Act.” If veterans don’t act fast, they will lose the VA health care system they know and depend on. The bill appears innocuous enough, with aspirations of accountability. But don’t be fooled. Hidden in its depths like a ticking time bomb is a provision intended to dismantle the integrated VA health care system faster than you can say “privatization.” Here’s their Trojan horse sneak attack: In response to struggles with addiction and mental health challenges many veterans face, the bill would allow unfettered access to outpatient private treatment without any VA authorization or referral. No questions asked. No guardrails whatsoever. The VA would simply pay the bills from its limited coffer. That’s phase one. Then, after three years, this arrangement is intended to encompass all medical care, fundamentally transforming the VA’s primary role from a health care provider to an insurance company writing checks…”