The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs touts the Veterans Choice Program as connecting veterans “to timely and convenient access to health care in your community.”

But that’s not the case for some Central Oregon veterans. Congress needs to fix it.

Veterans Choice was supposed to be one of the solutions to the VA’s waiting list scandal. The program would let veterans who live more than 40 miles away from a VA health care facility see a private doctor to get their care. About $10 billion was put into the program.

The program began less than a year ago, and although it has worked for some veterans, it hasn’t really lived up to the promise of making it easier for veterans to get care.

Here’s one example: The VA interpreted the 40 miles as being as the crow flies, rather than as common sense would suggest it should be — as a veteran would drive. That rule has been fixed.

There is still a problem in Central Oregon and elsewhere. Bend’s outpatient facility is limited. It offers many services to veterans, but doesn’t offer some specialized care. There is no cancer treatment or cardiology, for instance, as Bulletin reporter Tara Bannow wrote in Wednesday’s Bulletin. So being within 40 miles of the Bend clinic doesn’t mean some veterans can get easy access to the care they need, but they couldn’t use Veterans Choice.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Friday to change that part of the requirement. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives.

If that was all that was going on with Veterans Choice, it would sound like a fix is in the works. But President Obama said earlier this year that he would like to reallocate some of the $10 billion for the program.

The number of people using the program has indeed been lower than anticipated. With all the problems Veterans Choice has had, though, is that any surprise?

We don’t have a problem with reallocating the money if it can be put to more effective use to serve veterans. But it’s too soon to evaluate Veterans Choice. It hasn’t had a chance to be a solution.