Alaska is a good model for the rest of the country

My recent message to colleagues on the Senate floor was blunt: You’re either for veterans, or you’re against them.

It’s not enough to just make political speeches on Memorial Day or issue solemn statements on the anniversary of D-Day.

You also must support our veterans every day of the year, by voting to expand their access to health care, by allocating more dollars to hire doctors, by doing all we can to reduce waiting lists in the VA system.

As a member of Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans, I’ve been fighting for our veterans since my first day in the Senate.

I was disgusted in February when Republicans killed a bill that, among other provisions, would have opened more than two dozen new VA medical facilities to help a health system overburdened by the influx of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some of the same people who supported two unfunded wars that cost thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars insisted that we couldn’t afford the veterans relief bill. They voted no.

The terrible headlines of recent weeks tell us just how much we need those facilities, and why more resources are needed. Perhaps this time the full Senate will step up and vote to improve the VA system.

Alaska is a very good model for the rest of the country. That was my second message to my colleagues. We didn’t wait for CNN headlines to tell us what was going on with the VA in Alaska. And now the latest compromise bill includes several of the ideas we started to help Alaska’s veterans.

We are home to 75,000 vets. That’s the highest proportion of veterans in the country — more than 13 percent of our entire population. With many of them living in rural communities off the road system and hundreds of miles from the nearest VA clinic, the agency and its partners have developed innovative programs to make sure our vets get the care they earned and deserve.

One example is the “Heroes Card,” which allows Alaskans to use their veterans ID cards to access health care at most Indian Health Service (IHS) tribal clinics and hospitals.

This means they can get care in their own communities now, instead of the old system of required travel to a VA facility in Anchorage or even Seattle. I brought the VA and IHS together to make this common-sense solution a reality.

Alaska also led the way in allowing contracts between local doctors and the VA for basic primary care. At my urging, the Alaska VA entered into an agreement with the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center and other providers such as the Cornerstone Clinic, Providence Hospital and Southcentral Foundation.

Progress has been remarkable, and I credit the VA and our local providers for making it possible. A year ago the Alaska VA had about 900 people on its waiting list for an initial appointment — and vets were waiting up to three months to see a doctor.

As of a couple of weeks ago the average wait time for Alaska veterans to get their initial appointment was just nine days. And fewer than two dozen people were on the waitlist. Obviously these numbers will continue to fluctuate, but theirs is no doubt the system is working much, much better.

I proposed that the VA further reduce wait times by filling vacancies with Public Health Service Corps doctors and other providers, who already are deployed to work in areas with unmet medical needs. Why not the unmet needs of our VA?

And I just introduced a related bill. It would increase important psychiatric services for vets through a pilot program offering loan forgiveness for those who practice in the VA.

While I am proud of the solid progress in Alaska, I remain concerned by the problems plaguing the VA across the country. That’s why I am glad my Senate colleagues did their duty last week and passed the Veterans’ Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014 which includes several provisions already being implemented in Alaska.

There are few more important responsibilities we have as a nation than to give proper care to those who have sacrificed so much for us.

When it comes to casting votes, you’re either for veterans — or you’re against them.

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, is serving his first term representing Alaska in the Senate.