Adam Jahnke on the Fight to Transform Veterans’ Health Care and Benefits

American Potential

This episode of 'American Potential' features Marine Corps veteran Adam Jahnke, strategic director at Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), discussing the transformative Taking Care

Key takeaways

• The current VA health care system is outdated and fails to empower veterans in their medical decisions, often forcing them into a one-size-fits-all model with no choice of providers.
• The Mission Act (2018) was a breakthrough allowing veterans to access community care when VA wait times exceed 20–30 days or distance is prohibitive; now 43% of enrolled veterans use this option.

Main topics

• Veterans' health care reform
• The Taking Care of Americans Veterans Act (TCAVA)

Notable quotes

If we can't modernize these things and update them and make sure every penny of that offset stays in the veteran space, we're not going to have any political room to even have a debate moving into the future.

Conclusion

Adam Jahnke underscores that meaningful reform in veterans' health care is not only necessary but urgent. The Taking Care of

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) And the truth is, Section 108, whether it's part of this bill or not, was going to go into effect September of this year. And what TCAVA was going to do was going to roll those offsets into the pay for for this bill rather than all that savings going to the general treasury. So it's a matter of if you view any kind of reform to the VA compensation model as taking money from veterans versus. Speaker 1 (0:29) Meaningful medical reforms to the antiquated VA system, most of these rating criterias have not been touched since World War II. Now, if we can't modernize these things and update them and make sure every penny of that offset stays in the veteran space, We're not going to have any political room to even have a debate moving into the future. And oh, by the way, every American is about to be insolvent in Social Security in five years. We're doing $2 trillion in deficit spending every year. And to pretend just because we're veterans. Speaker 2 (1:00) Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential. Speaker 4 (1:10) Hey, everyone. Welcome to the American Potential podcast. I'm your host, David Fromm. You know, before we get into our guest here, who we're going to talk about veterans health care and benefits and some really transformational legislation. You know, I was thinking about veterans, you know, on the other day I was watching a movie that involved some war. And it's just, you know, I'm always struck by the service that not only veterans themselves engage in, but their families. Speaker 4 (1:45) family was pretty recent immigrants in the 1900s. And we didn't have anybody because of some health issues. We actually didn't have anybody serve in like World War II or Vietnam. But Matt, Engineer Matt, did you guys have anybody? Do you have any relatives that served? Speaker 3 (1:58) Yeah, I've got loads of family who served, mostly Air Force in my family on both sides of the family. But my mother, her mother and father, so my grandmother and grandfather on my mother's side have a kind of a... unique story in that they were both in the Army Air Corps together during World War II. And I'm sure my mother could tell the story better. I'm sure she's got more of the details. But they both met each other in the Army Air Corps. My grandmother was working as a secretary. She joined the service to do that. And my grandfather was a fresh, I believe, second lieutenant. And he was running some part of a logistics squadron that they had. And they both met together in the Army Air Corps, went through the war together. Then after the war, got married together. And you could say the rest is history. They ended up having seven kids. And my mother was one of them. And ever since then, that side of the family has always been a big, big military family in one way or another. Speaker 4 (3:00) Wow, what a cool story. Love in the war. Wow. Today's guest is Marine Corps veteran Adam Yonke. And he's also the strategic director in South Carolina for Concerned Veterans for America. We have Adam on today to talk about the Taking Care of Americans Veterans Act, because this is a transformational bill expanding health care and benefits for veterans, some of which haven't been adjusted in over 30 years. Adam, welcome back to Speaker 1 (3:27) the podcast. Thanks for having me, David. Appreciate it. Speaker 4 (3:31) Yeah, thanks. So before we start talking about this bill, and there's a lot of bills involved, actually, in this whole measure. But can you talk a little bit about CVA, Concerned Veterans for America, and what CVA does and kind of explain what you all do? Speaker 1 (3:48) Yeah, Concerned Veterans for America has been a grassroots organization for about a decade and a half now. And I think in our inception, we really focused on transformative change in the veteran health care system, viewing it as taking care of our nation's veterans while also empowering and providing health care solutions. that will translate down the line for all of Americans, right? So just to visualize kind of what we were going through around that 2011 to 12 timeframe, we were, you know, the VA scandal in Phoenix, Arizona of veterans dying on secret waiting lists, all kinds of major gaps to access to healthcare. And I think that's what led our organization to champion VA healthcare reform, culminating in 2018 with getting the Mission Act passed. Speaker 4 (4:35) Yeah. And I mean, that was such an amazing start for CVA. I remember, you know, I was with the company back then and it was striking to me how poorly our veterans were being treated. And unfortunately, still like that, you would think that if you served our nation and particularly if you're injured, that you would just get the best gold plated care that we could get. And yet it's been quite the opposite for a lot of veterans. Speaker 1 (5:02) Well, honestly, having been a Purple Heart retired Marine from 2005 to 2010 to transitioning from the Department of Defense health care system to the VA system and that and that weird period we just discussed my own health care journey after being injured was not great, to say the least. Barrier after barrier over medication. I mean, the list goes on and on. But at the end of the day, it just. it can really be described as a lack of empowerment in your own healthcare decisions. A lot of Americans don't understand that the VA system is kind of dangerous in that it's a one size all solution for everybody, right? So if it doesn't work for you, there was no other option. You can't even pick your doctors in the VA system. You're just assigned like a number and then you have to go through the long process for referrals if they even have a specialist in the system and it goes on and on and on. So in a lot of ways, We're here to warn Americans that maybe socialized medicine is not the best solution for a health care period. And if our nation's finest that signed that dotted line and sacrificed so much for our country are running into these barriers, that's simply not acceptable. So I think that led us to writing and advocating for the VA Mission Act in 2018. And what that did is it allowed veterans to choose for the first time. in any serious number ever. So in 2018, when the bill passed under Trump, what it did is it allowed veterans that met certain criteria like distance from a VA, 20 to 30 days wait for a specialist or primary care to be able to use community care options. So what does that do? You can request to have all your stuff done through community care or just some of your referrals for specialty care. But what we saw is millions of veterans choosing their doctors, picking those health care providers in their community. I know personally, if I had to see a specialist, whether it's cardiac or oncology, I want to see the best person in the country for my care. And this program allows that. Now, there were a lot of hiccups in the implementation of this bill. And I think that's what's leading us to what we're fighting for now, which is the Veteran Access Act to continue to build off that success. And oh, by the way. 43 % of all veterans enrolled in the VA healthcare system are using community care currently. So it's Speaker 4 (7:24) a Speaker 1 (7:24) very popular program. Speaker 4 (7:25) Wow. Well, let's talk about the Taking Care of Americans Veterans Act. I know it's