WASHINGTON, D.C. ­— U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp today said that a new policy change by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will better allow veterans living further than a 40-mile driving distance from a local VA health care facility to be able to access care in their communities – a commonsense change to the law that Heitkamp pushed VA Secretary Robert McDonald to change just last month.

Last year, Congress passed a bipartisan bill to help improve access to health care for veterans and provide needed reforms at the VA. The bill gives eligible veterans increased access to health care through the Veterans Choice Card program — an initiative Heitkamp has called for since before she joined the Senate. The card allows veterans who can’t get a timely appointment with the VA or live more than 40 miles from a VA health care facility to seek care from local providers. The policy update announced by the VA this week will change the calculation used to determine the distance between a veteran’s residence and the nearest VA medical facility from a straight line distance to driving distance. Heitkamp pressed the VA Secretary to make such a change so that the distance accurately reflects how far veterans actually need to travel for care.

“Growing up in a town of 90 people, I’m intimately familiar with the struggles folks in rural areas face in accessing necessary resources. But the men and women who come home after serving our country – shouldn’t have to jump through additional hoops to get the care they need,” said Heitkamp. “That’s why I’ve been fighting for better health care access for the veterans who call so many of our rural towns home. The VA heeded those calls by creating a Veterans Choice Card – which I pushed for since before I joined the Senate – and this week the VA announced a commonsense solution I’ve been advocating to better serve veterans. It was an important step that Congress passed a bipartisan bill last June to improve care for veterans, and I’ll keep pushing for practical measures that secure this access for every veteran that has fought to keep this nation safe – no matter where they reside.”

Heitkamp has long fought to make sure veterans living in rural areas have greater access to the health care and services they need. Last July, Heitkamp met with then-VA Secretary Nominee McDonald and reinforced the need for the VA to make sure all veterans, including Native Americans and rural veterans, get access to quality resources and benefits in a timely manner. Later that month, Heitkamp voted to confirm McDonald to help bring about these needed reforms.

Heitkamp helped pass bipartisan reforms to the VA last August that provides eligible veterans with increased access to health care through the Veterans Choice Card program — an initiative Heitkamp has called for since before she joined the Senate. The card will allow veterans who can’t get a timely appointment with the VA or live more than 40 miles from a VA health care facility to seek care from local providers. The bill will also improve access to services, which Heitkamp has been pushing for to help veterans living in rural areas and Native American veterans more easily get care.

To help draw needed attention to the challenges facing Native American veterans and connect Native veterans with resources to help them get support, Heitkamp hosted her first Native American Veterans Summit in Bismarck last June, bringing together about 140 Native veterans, officials from the VA and Indian Health Service (IHS), and other advocates. Native veterans serve in the military at the highest rate per capita of any ethnic group. But studies demonstrate they also disproportionately suffer the health consequences of that service. They also often face many challenges accessing services because so many of them live in rural areas far from VA facilities. Following the summit, Heitkamp launched a new webpage to more easily connect veterans with information about how they can best access benefits and services.

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