John McCain proposed a bill on Wednesday to widen veterans' choice program, allowing them to go anywhere for care. The bill comes amid the obstruction on the slow development in the Department of Veterans Affairs' structure. McCain's suggested bill would eliminate the ongoing limitation that experts can move out of the VA structure if they wait 30 days or reside over 40 miles away from a VA facility.
In addition, the bill also enables veterans to seek medical help in walk-in clinics for trivial sickness. The bill demands the VA to team up with the chain of clinics across the country to offer the service. The bill also promises to increase the working hours of all pharmacies and clinics in the VA system. Moreover, the proposed legislation will enhance telemedicine facility to enable VA medical servicers in one state to help veterans in other location, USA TODAY reported.
The legislation would inspire VA clinics to undergo peer evaluation by certain prominent hospital links in the nation. McCain stated that he would rate Bob McDonald, secretary of VA system, a C-grade for his overall performance, however, he would give an F-grade for Bob's failure to keep agency people from several humiliations. One among the scandals was the glitches in managing schedule records in Phoenix VA clinics.
McCain noted that no one was held responsible for huge expense assaults involved in the erection of a VA hospital in Denver. However, the VA authorities refused to respond immediately to a mail looking comment on McCain's proposed law. McCain did not provide any expense estimate for the law. Office of Management and Budget anticipate the cost of the legislation to be $3.3 billion, McCain noted.
McCain said that he seeks more backup from other Democrats and expects to licence the law before the close of the legislative sitting. He also claimed that his office is still managing nearly 500 complaints from veterans.
The senator also said that he wants Northrop Grumman's contract expense to be disclosed in public. He noted that he will take prominent steps next month when the Armed Services Committee reacts on the fiscal 2017 security approval law. Meanwhile, Randall Walden, director of Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, in a letter to the senator on April 11 said that the cost figure should not be made public as US opponents could easily gauge the weight of weapons used by the US military, thus would end up in revealing the secrecy of the security force, as reported by Newsmax.
The senator has also criticised the F-35 jet project as a shame as the growth of aircraft extends into its fifteenth year, burdening the Pentagon with a cost of about $400 billion, MailOnline said. He said that the conventional F-35 striker planes values over $100 million each.
But, Frank Kendall, head of Pentagon acquisition, and Christopher Bogdan, Air Force Lt. General, said that they are moving towards progress and that the F-35 striker would overcome difficulties. The proposed defence budget for 2017 comprises $8.3 billion to buy 63 aircraft.
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