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The impending closure of a mobile health clinic for veterans in rural Maine provides a stark reminder that the best intentions sometimes run up against the cost barrier.
For the past two years, the 53-foot-long clinic had been located in Bingham, offering medical services to some 400 veterans and their families from Somerset, Franklin and Piscataquis counties in eastern Maine. The planned Oct. 1 closure will force veterans and their families to drive to the VA Healthcare System in Togus, near Augusta, or an outpatient clinic in Bangor.
That can take anywhere from one hour to five, round-trip, to reach either facility.
"If you need a simple test, you shouldn't have to drive 100 miles to get it," Steve Steward, a Bingham selectman, told the Central Maine Morning Sentinel. "They're old. They're tired. They're veterans. They've earned this privilege."
"You're taking away part of their dignity," he added.
VA officials have cited the high cost of running the mobile clinic as the primary reason for its closure. Ryan Lilly, associate director of the VA Maine Healthcare System, told the Morning Sentinel shutting the clinic would save the agency between $100,000 and $200,000 a year in operating costs.
Lilly said the VA is studying how to help the veterans get the care they need, including the possibility of establishing a teleconferencing system. He also pointed out that home-based care is available for veterans who can’t travel, and the Disabled American Veterans organization has offered to drive veterans to and from the Togus hospital.
He said the VA hasn’t considered subletting space for a clinic in Bingham, as “that would obviously represent a cost” and the subletting process is complicated. He pointed out that the mobile clinic was a pilot program, not a permanent one.
"All options are on the table for the future, and we have to find the one that works the best," he told the Morning Sentinel.
Some veterans have said the drive to Togus or Bangor will be too risky during the winter, and some have indicated they won’t travel to either facility at all.
In an effort to sway the VA’s opinion, a meeting has been called in Bingham this week that will involve VA officials, veterans and representatives from U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud.
In a prepared statement, Snowe said “it is incumbent upon each agency to thoroughly evaluate the merits of each cost-cutting measure to ensure our federal government is able to keep its promises, especially when it comes to veterans and our senior citizens.”
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