Veterans Health Care Alert!!

[David]

Gimpy

Registered to :Aug 23, 2001
Messages :70
From :Tampa, FL
Posted 11-03-2002 at 15:33
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received this letter in my E-mail this morning. The availability of health care for service-connected as well as all veterans is reaching disastrous stages all across the country---especially here in Florida. I was told when I first moved down here in October that it may be 6 to 9 months before I could expect to get an appointment with a cardiologist, urologist or an orthopedic specialist. Well, you guys know me by now. I calmly said---"PHUCK THIS $HIT"---and stormed into the hospital directors office DEMANDING an explanation AND a "more timely" schedule of appontments for my service-connected conditions. I DID NOT leave his office until I had been handed over to the director of "Eligibilty" and was guaranteed earlier appointments. I got ALL THREE within TWO WEEKS!!!

Just PROVES that the "Squeaky Wheel" gets the GREASE---HUH???

But, it's a sad--sad situation that most of this countrys Vets will NOT know the "system" well enough or have the audacity to question the current terrible state of affairs in the VA health care system.

Anyway, check out the letter below from the DAV Washington headquarters. AND---PLEASE--PLEASE write your elected officials to let them know they MUST give MORE FUNDING to VA HEALTH CARE!!


***START***
DAV Washington Headquarters Executive Director David Gorman sent the following letter to VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi on Friday, March 8, 2002:

March 8, 2002

The Honorable Anthony J. Principi
Secretary
Department of Veterans Affairs (00)
810 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20420

Dear Secretary Principi:

I am writing to you concerning the inability of our nation's service-connected disabled veterans to receive timely access to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care. Based on a record number of calls from Disabled American Veterans (DAV) members over the last several months, we fear this situation has reached a critical point with no sign of abatement.

Access to priority health care for our nation's disabled veterans has been seriously eroded over the years due to insufficient health care funding. I know you are aware of the extreme stress being placed on the system at this time and VA's difficulty in reducing waiting times while maintaining the highest standards for quality of care. Based on your comments to DAV members at our Mid-Winter Conference it is clear you intend to ensure that veterans with service-connected disabilities and poor veterans are afforded priority for care without sacrificing the excellent quality of care VA is now known for, or restricting health care to other deserving veterans. We appreciate your strong commitment to service-connected disabled and poor veterans, however; we know it will take more than good intentions to correct this serious problem.

It is difficult to believe that health care for veterans, especially those with combat or other service connected-disabilities, is not an entitlement. As you are aware, veterans' health care is discretionary and the level of VA health care funding is judged in light of competing priorities. It is disingenuous for our elected officials to promise health care to veterans and then make it unattainable because of inadequate funding. Rationed health care is no way to honor America's obligation to the brave men and women who have, and continue to unselfishly put our nation's priorities and defense in front of their own needs. In Florida, there is a record number of veterans waiting for access to the system, with more than 3,500 service-connected veterans waiting just to be scheduled for an appointment, which, in many cases, will not be scheduled for more than a year.

One way to address this growing problem is to make veterans' health care an entitlement. By making veterans' medical care funding mandatory rather than subject to annual discretionary appropriations, will ensure VA's ability to care for all veterans who require care. Veterans should not have to beg year after year for adequate funding to receive timely and quality health care services they have earned through their honorable service to this country. Likewise, VISN directors should not be forced to make decisions based on repeated budget shortfalls that negatively impact sick and disabled veterans. It is unconscionable to make you, Mr. Secretary, choose between accessibility to care or maintaining the quality care standards VA has worked very hard to improve over the last several years.

We appreciate your serious consideration of our proposal to make veterans' health care an entitlement and giving service-connected disabled veterans a priority to health care once they are enrolled in the VA system. Given VA's own estimates of significantly increasing numbers of veterans seeking VA health care, mandatory funding is a reasonable solution to meeting the growing backlog for care.

Thank you for your strong commitment to America's sick and disabled veterans and your willingness to consider our initiatives to address this challenging situation.

Sincerely,

DAVID W. GORMAN
Executive Director
Washington Headquarters

***END***




-----------------
Gimpy RIVERENE**MUD-GRUNT "I ain't no fortunate son"


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Profile Email Qoute
Gimpy

Registered to :Aug 23, 2001
Messages :70
From :Tampa, FL
Posted 11-03-2002 at 22:02
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More on the VA health care "crisis".

***START***

EXCERPT) Wed Mar 6, 1:56 PM ET, by JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi said Wednesday that he may be forced to limit new enrollments to VA healthcare programs unless Congress requires some veterans to pay a $1,500 deductible.

Senators, at a hearing on the agency's budget request for next year, sympathized with Principi's funding problems but were united in
criticizing the idea of the deductible. "I am very concerned that a $1,500 deductible will leave some veterans without any health care at
all," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (news), D-Md., chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee in charge of the VA budget.

Principi, while acknowledging that the deductible is unpopular, said the agency's financial problems were "getting to crisis proportions."
He said the refusal of Congress to approve the plan would leave a $1.1 billion hole in the budget. In that case, he said, he would probably
opt to reduce enrollment in health care programs rather than reduce the quality of services.

Principi said he would request $142 million as part of an emergency spending package to make up part of a projected $400 million shortfall
in VA revenues for the 2002 budget year that began Oct. 1. With that money, he said, he could probably get through 2002 without cutting enrollments.

Congress in 1996 passed a law opening VA medical facilities to nearly all veterans, not just the very poor and those with service-related disabilities who have always been the VA's core patients.

Since then, the number of veterans enrolled in VA health care has doubled, to 6 million, and one-third are in the new "priority 7" category made up of veterans with slightly higher incomes and no
service-related disabilities. Veterans with incomes of $24,500 if single or $28,800 if married fall into this category.

Under the proposals, these veterans or their insurance companies would pay 45 percent of the charges when they receive medical care until
they reach the $1,500 annual ceiling.

The plan has met stiff opposition from the veterans service organizations. The plan "can most charitably be described as a form of
Darwinian class warfare, an attempt to force out of the VA system some of the most economically and socially disadvantaged members of the
veteran community," Richard Weidman of Vietnam Veterans of America said in a statement.

Principi suggested that part of the problem has been that Congress has expanded VA programs without providing the money to pay for them. He
said that when the law passed in 1996 it was assumed the VA would increase its revenues through such means as charging Medicare for
services rendered by the VA. "Guess what, it never happened," he said.

Mikulski said that, instead of proposing deductibles, the VA should be finding ways to ensure that the agency is getting what it is owed by private insurance companies.





-----------------
Gimpy RIVERENE**MUD-GRUNT "I ain't no fortunate son"


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Profile Email Qoute
fnaWife2AFVV

Registered to :Sep 26, 2001
Messages :198
From :
Posted 13-03-2002 at 21:52
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply-To: news-request@vetlist.house.gov
X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/86
X-Loop: news@vetlist.house.gov
Resent-Sender: news-request@vetlist.house.gov
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 13, 2002
(snip)
(Washington, DC) - Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-4), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs today backed the 2003 budget proposal of the House Budget Committee, saying it will "maintain our commitments and sustain vital VA health care programs." Smith particularly welcomed elimination of the Administration's ill-fated proposal to impose a new $1,500 deductible on
some veterans seeking VA health care, as well as an historic breakthrough on the issue of concurrent receipt.

"Under Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle's proposal, the VA's budget authority for fiscal year 2003 will jump to a record $56.9 billion, an increase of 11.6%, including...12% increase in VA health care. That's $2.6 billion above this year's spending level, more than $1.2 billion above the Administration's proposed budget for medical care," said Smith.

"Combined with spending on disability compensation and other VA benefit programs, this budget will give veterans about 99% of the funding that we requested on their behalf," said Smith

On Monday, Smith and the Veterans' Affairs Committee had recommended that the Budget Committee significantly increase VA health care funding, without imposition of the controversial $1,500 deductible. The Administration had proposed an annual $1,500 deductible for 'Priority 7' veterans - those
without service-connected disabilities and whose incomes are above poverty levels. The VA estimated 471,000 veterans would have had their health care services diminished or eliminated as a result.

"Under the budget plan we recommended, and which is now being adopted by the Budget Committee, the Administration's $1,500 proposal will be replaced dollar-for-dollar with new funds," said Smith. "From day one, I have called that proposal a 'nonstarter' and I am pleased that Chairman Nussle and his colleagues on the Budget Committee have agreed," he said.

Smith also hailed the language included in the Budget Committee's draft to resolve the problem of concurrent receipt, the glitch in the law that requires military retirees to have their pensions lowered by the amount of
disability compensation payments they also receive. "There is no reason that a veteran, who risked life and limb for his country, and suffers from a disability as a result, should be penalized because he choose to serve
honorably in our military until retirement," Smith said.

"Last year, we made historic improvements in the delivery of benefits and services to our nation's 25 million veterans and their families," said Smith. "We reinvigorated the GI Bill education and training program, jump-started the fight to end homelessness among veterans, increased disability compensation payments, and strengthened the provision of VA health care nationwide. Now, by adopting this budget proposal, we will be taking a giant step forward to ensure that we leave no veteran behind," he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Hopefully this means the $1,500 deductible thingy is going away........

From earlier, 3/11 release:
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"While the Administration has proposed a significant increase in health care
funding for veterans, it is simply not enough to meet the need they
themselves have identified," said Smith. "Their proposal to push away
almost half a million veterans through a new $1,500 deductible was an
unrealistic and unworkable attempt to plug a growing hole in their budget.
Now, we have to fill that hole with real dollars," he said.

"The budget for veterans medical care proposed by the Administration for
next year is simply inadequate. It fails far short of providing the amount
of funding VA needs if veterans are to receive timely and quality care from
VA," Evans said.

The Administration's budget proposal included a controversial $1,500
deductible to be levied upon Priority 7 veterans, those who have no service
connected disability and whose incomes are above poverty levels. As a
result of this proposal, the VA estimated 471,000 veterans would have health
care services diminished or eliminated. Relying upon this assumption, the
Administration reduced its request for health care spending by $1.1 billion
for fiscal year 2003.

Smith and Evans said that the $1,500 deductible proposal, "has no chance of
approval in this Congress."

"While the President's budget does contain a record increase in funding for
veterans benefits and services, it is not adequate to meet the documented
needs," wrote Smith and Evans. "If we are to fulfill our obligations to
care for America's veterans and their families, we must be willing to
provide the needed resources," they said.

"The VA now estimates that 700,000 more veterans will be turning to the VA
for health care services next year; we should not be turning them away,"
said Smith. "We need to stop trying to provide care on the cheap. If we
want world class health care for veterans, we need a world class budget," he
said.

"If this Administration is truly committed to meeting the medical care needs
of those who have served our nation in uniform, VA must provide veterans
timely and quality care. When a veteran enrolls in VA health care and then
must wait as long as a year to obtain a medical care appointment, VA is on
the verge of deceptive practices and failing to provide veterans the medical
care services they have earned and deserve," Evans said.

The Veterans' Affairs Committee recommended increasing health care and other
discretionary spending more than $3.6 billion over FY 2002 appropriations,
including almost $1 billion requested by the Administration to cover
increased payroll costs and medical inflation. In addition, the major
recommendations of the Committee for increases over and above the budget
proposal from the Administration were:

Priority 7 veterans increased demand: $1.1 billion (replaces $1,500
deductible proposal)

Unmet budget shortfall from FY 2002: $300 million (also needed in FY 2002
supplemental)

Medical infrastructure: $194 million (hospital construction, rehabilitation)

Statutory health care enhancements: $150 million (long term care, homeless
vets)

Emergency preparedness: $200 million (backup to DoD, bio-terrorism)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


m