Saving Northampton Veterans Hospital Shows Bipartisanship Can Work
I’m writing to make sure you didn’t miss this good news for veterans. After months of fighting, the VA hospital in Leeds will remain open. So many veterans in our district and throughout Massachusetts depend on that facility for specialized health care, and earlier this year, the VA recommended that it be closed. The Leeds VA is home to world-class doctors and treatments and I’m proud to have led the fight to keep the facility open.
Let me be clear: it is unacceptable for veterans in Central and Western Massachusetts to have to travel to Boston or out-of-state for care at a VA facility. Veterans fought for our country and they shouldn’t have to keep fighting after they return home for the health care they deserve.
There’s a 14-letter word that’s been treated like a four-letter word in Washington, but it may be creeping back into the political lexicon, and none too soon. It helped save a desperately needed facility that should not have been jeopardized in the first place.
The word is “bipartisanship,” and it blocked a Veterans Affairs restructuring plan that would have closed the Edward P. Boland VA Medical Center in Northampton.
As U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, said, veterans served at this facility should not have endured the anxiety of possible closure in the first place.