Moran tackles big issues with locals during Russell town hall

By RICKY KERR
Hays Post

RUSSELL — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran hosted an open forum with local residents in the area at Russell Regional Hospital Friday, answering questions on a wide range of topics from immigration, the Iran deal, defunding Planned Parenthood, and the conservation of Wilson Lake.

But reforming the Department of Veteran Affairs appeared to be the most important thing on Moran’s to-do list. This was the only topic he chose to speak on, while the other topics were prompted by the audience.

“In my view, the VA is letting too many veterans slip through the cracks,” Moran said.

Watch the full meeting here, story continues below.

The 61-year-old senator also noted that while he is not a veteran, he remembers his high school years in Plainville during the Vietnam War.

“One of the things I took from that experience of Vietnam was the realization that our country was making a terrible mistake in not supporting its men and women who served and the lack of care, treatment and, in some cases, respect that those individuals received when they returned home,” he said.

Moran called the VA “bureaucratic” and said that while it is providing quality service for many of its older veterans, it is currently overwhelmed by new veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Republican senator has also been pushing the VA to allow veterans to access care from their hometown hospitals and physicians.

VA Clinic Hays — The Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center located at 207-B E. 7th in Hays provides some medical services. Veterans within 40 miles that require additional medical care would have to travel hours away to another facility under current VA policy.

The Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, commonly referred to as the Choice Act, states that if a veteran is unable to receive care within 30 days or if they live more than 40 miles away from a VA facility, the VA is required to provide those services at home. While Moran says the Choice Act is a benefit toward veterans, it doesn’t go far enough.

“Going back to Russell, they’re saying if there is a VA facility within 40 miles, you don’t qualify even though the facility doesn’t provide the service that the veteran needs,” Moran said. While there is a facility within 40 miles – a VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic center located in Hays – it may not provide services veterans need. For local residents, this means the VA would not provide service unless they traveled to a VA facility that does.

“We’ve now passed a law last week that says [the VA] can only define a facility if there is a full-time physician… and almost none of our CBOCS’s in Kansas have a full-time facility, so it should open the doors for better treatment at home,” Moran said.

Moran said $15 billion is currently appropriated to the VA to give veterans better care, with $5 billion to hire more VA physicians and $10 billion to pay local hospitals for service at Medicare rates.