The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that all copays for eligible American Indian and Alaska Native veterans will be waived. The announcement comes as the department looks to boost the use of primary-care medicine for those who are traditionally underserved.
The VA’s director of tribal health, Travis Trueblood, shared with the Wall Street Journal that the policy will look to address disparities that have otherwise been ignored.
“It’s no mystery to a lot of people that healthcare is sometimes hard to come by in many Native American communities,” Trueblood said.
The new policy is made possible due to provisions passed in the Isakson and Roe Veterans Health Care Benefits Improvement Act of 2020, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) shared in a press release.
“I’m encouraged to see VA answering my call to implement the law and remove burdensome copayments for Native veterans accessing their earned health care,” Tester said. “The fact is Native veterans have bravely answered the call to duty for generations. And I’ll continue to hold VA accountable in delivering these veterans their long-overdue support.”
The policy has yet to go into effect, but officials with the VA said that the final version of it would not only waive copays for the protected groups but also reimburse the copays they have made in the last year.
It unknown how many veterans the policy will be available to, but the VA has estimated that the total number of Native veterans is around 150,000.
The rule is expected to go into effect in at least 30 days, according to the report from the Journal.
Healthcare is offered to most veterans who left the service on good terms through the Veterans Health Administration.
Under the healthcare system are tiers of varying costs for veterans depending on their conditions. For example, veterans who are completely disabled pay few out-of-pocket costs. At the lowest tier levels, veterans have copays compared to those of private insurance holders.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough shared a statement on the policy update, saying that it only gives veterans what they have earned.
“This rule makes healthcare more accessible and allows us to better deliver to these veterans the care and health benefits that they have earned,” McDonough said in the statement.
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