New clinic on Oahu, more access to doctors

This is an issue of policy and funding, but at its core, this is a moral failure. Veterans put their lives on the line, and it’s our obligation to take care of them when they come home. The U.S. government is failing to live up to its promise.

Here’s what needs to be done:

First, the Department of Veterans Affairs needs additional investments.

The veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan served America through the longest period of war in U.S. history. Because of advances in technology and health care on the battlefield, more servicemen and women are surviving injury, but coming home with the physical and mental wounds of war and needing care.

Demand for veterans health care has increased 15 percent since 2009 — with roughly 1 million new veterans and dependents accessing the system — and these numbers will continue to rise as we end the war in Afghanistan.

The VA needs more resources to match the growing demand for health care services.

Last week in the Senate, we came together to pass bipartisan legislation allowing the VA to hire new doctors and nurses, expanding the pool of health care providers to help cut the wait times veterans are currently facing.

Specifically for Hawaii, our bill authorizes a new VA clinic that will double the amount of clinical services on Oahu. This new clinic, the ALOHA Center, will help an estimated 15,000 veterans get the timely care they need, and ease the burden at the Spark M. Matsunaga VA Medical Center.

Second, while the VA is hiring new doctors and nurses and moving forward on the ALOHA Center, Hawaii veterans need options. They can’t wait. So our bill makes sure eligible veterans who cannot get a timely appointment with the VA will be able to see a private doctor.

Moving forward, we have to continue to make it easier for veterans on the neighbor islands to get the timely care they need. That’s why I will keep pushing the VA to contract with local qualified health clinics to provide health care to veterans in their communities so they can avoid the need to travel long distances or to other islands, and to make use of telehealth technologies to serve veterans directly in their homes.

When they were asked to serve their country, veterans stepped up. They didn’t wait. And they should not have to wait now for their country. We need to make sure that Hawaii’s VA health care system lives up to our promises and values. Our veterans deserve nothing less.

Our Hawaii congressional delegation is united in recognizing the severity of the problem, the need to put politics aside, and act together to fix this and to do it now.