Clinton
opposes VA privatization but sees need for choice
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[June 19, 2015]
By Michelle Conlin
RENO, Nevada (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton,
the Democratic front-runner for the 2016 presidential race, said on
Thursday she opposes blanket privatization of military veterans'
healthcare but realizes that vets need choices.
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In her first substantive comments on the campaign trail about
veterans' affairs, Clinton vowed to win a better deal for vets and
protect their education funding benefits.
She told a campaign event at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in
Reno, Nevada, that private medicine cannot compete with the
Department of Veterans Affairs' expertise in post-traumatic stress
disorders, traumatic brain injury and prosthetics.
"We have learned that privatization and outsourcing is not a magic
solution for anything, let alone when it comes to the unique
obligations we have to our vets, so I do oppose blanket
privatization proposals," she said.
Even so, the former secretary of state suggested there was a role
for private health care in some areas of veterans' treatment.
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"I do believe choice should be part of the solution and if we let
the VA work more with communities while preserving what it does
best, serving veterans and their unique needs, perhaps we can get
better care faster to more vets."
Jeb Bush, who earlier this week formally announced his candidacy for
the Republican nomination, has called for the partial privatization
of veterans' healthcare through a voucher system.
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Clinton vowed that if elected president in the November 2016
elections to protect the "Post 9/11 GI Bill" that provides college
tuition fees and a monthly housing allowance to vets who served in
Iraq and Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001.
"I will guarantee as president the Post 9/11 GI bill will be there
for future generations, no questions asked. I will resist, I will
veto any effort to reduce it or roll it back, as some have
suggested," she said.
Clinton promised to protect veterans against predatory lending,
forgive student loans for medical personnel in the VA system and
provide a $1,500 tax credit to businesses for every vet apprentice
they hire.
(Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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