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Bill would create new VA facility in Cape Girardeau

A bill winning approval from U.S. senators to resolve problems in the troubled Veterans Affairs system would create new health facilities, including one in southeast Missouri.

Under the larger bill agreed to by senior senators yesterday, the measure authorizes the VA to lease 26 new walk-in health facilities in 18 states and spend $500 million to hire more doctors and nurses.

One of those proposed facilities would be in Cape Girardeau. It's uncertain when the bill would come to a vote.

The Senate bill is a response to a building national uproar over veterans' health care following allegations that as many as 40 veterans may have died while waiting an average 115 days for appointments at the Phoenix VA hospital or its walk-in clinics.

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