BISMARCK, N.D. ­— U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp today formally invited U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald to visit North Dakota to see firsthand the challenges rural veterans encounter in accessing quality, affordable health care close to home. 

“Unless you grew up in a rural community, it’s hard to grasp the challenges many North Dakota veterans face trying to get the care they deserve,” said Heitkamp. “Today I’m calling on Secretary McDonald to visit North Dakota so he understands the obligation the VA has to provide quality care to veterans in rural areas who often live long distances from VA hospitals and clinics. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear from veterans in our state who are struggling to get the cancer treatments, X-rays, physical therapy, and other services they deserve. The VA has fallen short in meeting that obligation, and Secretary McDonald needs to hear our veterans’ concerns himself so his department can fix this program for rural America.” 

Last year, Congress passed a bipartisan bill to reform the VA and improve access to care, and since then Heitkamp has pushed to make sure the bill is implemented properly – especially as it relates to North Dakota veterans who live far from VA medical facilities. The reforms included a Veterans Choice Card program to 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.

However, countless North Dakotans have reached out to Heitkamp to share serious and unacceptable challenges they have encountered in the new program. That’s why, in addition to calling on Secretary McDonald to visit North Dakota, Heitkamp asked him how third party administrators like Health Net, which schedules appointments for North Dakota veterans in their communities, will fit into VA’s plan to consolidate the Choice Program with other care in the community. She also pressed him about what steps the VA will take to improve the efficiency of the referral and authorization process.

Heitkamp has pushed for increased care options for veterans since long before she joined Congress. In March, she successfully pressed VA to use the driving distance – rather than the straight-line distance – between a veteran’s residence and the nearest VA medical facility in its Choice Program eligibility criteria.

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 provide eligible veterans with increased access to health care through the Veterans Choice Program.

Click here to read the letter.