Making progress for Alaska veterans

To the editor:

Health care for veterans should be a bipartisan issue. I’m angry that some politicians are trying to politicize military service. Don’t listen to those Outside attack ads: The fact is that we’re making major progress on improving care for Alaska veterans.

In Alaska, the Veterans Administration backlog has declined from 900 to 50, a major improvement. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan is trying to politicize the VA, in reality Alaska VA response times have improved over the last few years. Improvements in VA management weren’t an accident: Senator Begich and our congressional delegation put a lot of pressure on the VA to improve care for Alaska veterans.

In addition to reducing the VA backlog, Alaska veterans have seen the most dramatic expansion in health care in years as we gained access to more clinics. As a result of a VA and Indian Health Service partnership initiated by Senator Begich, Alaska vets can get care closer to home. There are 28 IHS clinics that now are open to veterans, meaning that more veterans in rural Alaska can get care in their hometown. And there are new partnerships opening more clinics in Southcentral.

Reducing the VA backlog and opening dozens of new clinics to Alaska veterans means that our veterans’ care is better than ever. I’m tired of Outside groups that are trying to use veterans for political purposes. Instead, we should keep working together to continue improving veterans’ care in Alaska.

Gene White

Alaska Veteran

Anchorage