Texas 2017 85th Regular

Texas House Bill HCR44 House Committee Report / Bill

Filed 02/02/2025

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                    85R6398 BPG-D
 By: Metcalf, Keough, Bell, Darby, Flynn, H.C.R. No. 44
 et al.


 CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 WHEREAS, The Veterans Administration is charged with
 ensuring the health and well-being of the nation's veterans, but in
 recent years, its failure to adequately perform its mission has
 been the source of scandal; and
 WHEREAS, In 2014, the United States Congress responded to
 unconscionable delays and denials of care at VA facilities by
 passing the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice,
 Accountability, and Transparency Act, which allows access to
 private medical care providers for veterans who have been waiting
 more than 30 days for an appointment or who live more than 40 miles
 from a VA facility; the law is set to expire in 2017, but U.S.
 Senator John McCain of Arizona has filed the Care Veterans Deserve
 Act of 2016, S.2896, which enhances and expands the major reforms of
 the Veterans' Choice Act; and
 WHEREAS, Provisions of S.2896 include allowing access to
 walk-in clinics without preauthorization or copayment, the
 expansion of VA pharmacy hours and telemedicine, and extending the
 Veterans Choice Card program to permit all qualified veterans to
 see the doctor of their choice; moreover, the bill encourages
 best-practices peer review for VA facilities; the act would broaden
 access to timely health care while offering greater choice and
 flexibility to every eligible veteran; and
 WHEREAS, Our nation's veterans have made enormous sacrifices
 to guarantee our freedoms, and although the nation can never fully
 repay its debt of gratitude, it can and should ensure timely access
 to the highest quality of medical care; now, therefore, be it
 RESOLVED, That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas
 hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to pass S.2896,
 the Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016; and, be it further
 RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
 copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
 the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
 Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
 members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
 this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
 memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.