Concerned Veterans for America’s Crocodile Tears About the Veterans’ ACCESS Act

Last Monday, Amber Smith and Darin Selnick—two top advisors for the Koch-backed group Concerned Veterans for America (CVA)—published a brazen piece of propaganda masquerading as concern for veterans in mental health crisis.

Their op-ed–entitled "Veterans in Crisis Deserve Care Quickly-Pass the ACCESS Act Now"—wasn’t advocacy. Rather, it was a hit job on the VA healthcare system, wrapped up in manufactured urgency and outright deception. This latest salvo advances CVA's relentless campaign, in concert with the Koch’s broader goals via Americans for Prosperity, to ram through the ACCESS Act and gut vital public programs.

Smith and Selnick preview their big lie right in the headline, a breathtakingly disingenuous statement that falsely implies mental health emergency care isn’t already fully available to veterans. The authors go on to claim that “veterans in crisis can wait weeks (or worst case, longer) for treatment that should be available in hours." That’s also a flat-out lie.

Since 2020, the COMPACT Act has guaranteed all veterans in crisis—not just VA-enrolled ones—immediate mental health evaluation and treatment anywhere in America. This applies to VA and non-VA facilities. There are no delays and no co-pays. Smith and Selnick know this, but they're counting on the reader not to.

They also claim that access to community care "has been steadily eroded," ignoring the data in front of them. The actual numbers show that private sector care referrals have grown 15-20% annually. In 2023, 2.8 million veterans received VA-funded care in the community. But facts have never been CVA's strong suit.

Smith and Selnick ratchet up the rhetoric by declaring that "the cost of delay is measured in lives." They’ve conveniently forgotten the research demonstrating that VA care achieves lower mortality rates—including suicide death rates—than the veterans community care program. But speaking of real costs, this legislation massively increases financial burdens on taxpayers. That’s because the ACCESS Act's most radical provision—allowing veterans to bypass VA authorization, seek private sector care, and bill the government directly—represents a fundamental overhaul that could cost an additional $124 billion annually by the fifth year, according to the Commission on Care.

Selnick knows this number quite well. After all, he was a member of that Commission. But in this latest attack, there is not a peep from him about the budget-busting expense.

This bill isn't really about helping veterans; it's about further dismantling the VA piece by piece so that private healthcare companies can feast on its healthcare budget. The ACCESS Act is yet another giant step that will hollow out the VA from within, creating a downward spiral where reduced capacity drives more veterans to private care. This, in turn, reduces capacity further, which then justifies more privatization.

America's veterans didn't serve and sacrifice so that the funds dedicated to their care could be pillaged to serve the needs of profit rather than mission driven healthcare. They deserve the truth: the VA already ensures immediate crisis care, and access to community services has dramatically expanded. The ACCESS Act is a multibillion-dollar giveaway to private healthcare corporations that will imperil VA’s long-term viability.

Smith and Selnick should take their crocodile tears elsewhere.