Patty Murray: “Community care can't be the answer because it often takes…”

“… heard from a number of them that that wait times for behavioral health care can sometimes be up to 90 days. That is 90 days for behavioral health care. Unacceptable. Community care can't be the answer because it often takes community care providers longer to treat veterans than it would if the VA remained, if that veteran remained with the VA. Those same advocates that I met with told me that it can take up to 10 months to fill certain positions, and yet VA's budget is requesting 6,000 fewer employees than VHA had in 2025.” (02:27–02:39)

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