{"id":7499,"date":"2026-06-25T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7499"},"modified":"2026-06-25T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:30:00","slug":"va-community-care-contributed-more-than-36b-to-local-economies-in-fy-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7499","title":{"rendered":"VA Community Care contributed more than $36B to local economies in FY 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published:<\/strong> 2026-06-25T14:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 <\/strong>The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs today announced it made more than $36 billion in payments to local healthcare providers across the country in fiscal year 2025 as part of\u00a0the bipartisan VA MISSION Act.<\/p>\n

President Trump signed the MISSION Act\u00a0in 2018 after it passed Congress with widespread bipartisan support. The law created a benefit that lets eligible Veterans choose care from authorized local, non-VA healthcare providers at VA expense. VA pays for that care under the Veterans Community Care Program, which is the fourth largest healthcare payer program in America and provides healthcare services supporting more than 8.62 million enrolled\u00a0Veterans.<\/p>\n

With the enactment of the bipartisan Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act in 2025, Congress reaffirmed its commitment to Veterans\u2019 healthcare\u00a0choice by requiring VA to ensure that Veterans and their referring clinicians can choose community care without any additional review when it\u2019s in the Veteran\u2019s\u00a0best medical interest. Under current law, Veterans can also choose community care in other circumstances, including if their average driving time or wait time exceeds certain thresholds or when they need a service that is not provided by VA.<\/p>\n

While community care is an important option for many Veterans, VA is also spending record amounts of funding on direct care \u2014 a record high $101 billion was spent on direct care in FY 2025, when VA completed a record high 82,083,918 direct care appointments, up 4.1% from FY 2024.<\/p>\n

Federal healthcare payer programs \u2014 like the Veterans Community Care Program, Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE \u2014 are critical to the operation of every healthcare system in the country and help ensure patients get the care they need. That is especially true in rural areas, where millions of America\u2019s Veterans live.\u00a0Rural healthcare providers sometimes\u00a0operate on margins of less than 1%, which means VA community care payments help ensure these providers remain open and able to care for Veterans, their families and others in the community.<\/p>\n

Providing Veterans the ability to receive care from non-VA healthcare providers at VA expense has widespread bipartisan support. A March 2026 survey<\/a>\u00a0from Rasmussen Reports found that 90% of likely military voters support the policy.<\/p>\n

In FY 2025, the top ten states that benefited from VA community care\u00a0were:<\/p>\n