VA hospital flap coulld hurt Bush

[Gimpy]

VA Hospital Flap
Could Hurt Bush

By GREG HITT and TOM HAMBURGER
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


CRAWFORD, Texas -- Neither bombings overseas nor the massive blackout up north disrupted the serenity of President Bush's adopted hometown during his annual summer vacation this month. But a proposal to close the local veterans' hospital did -- and that could be a harbinger of political dangers ahead.

Just after Mr. Bush arrived at his Prairie Chapel Ranch to begin his August vacation, the Department of Veterans Affairs unveiled a sweeping plan to restructure the delivery of health care to millions of veterans. While expanding some facilities and building new ones, the plan also would shutter seven hospitals around the country, including one in nearby Waco.

In response, hundreds of angry Texas veterans, many riding motorcycles and waving flags, descended on Crawford (population 705) for a noisy street protest. The organizers didn't have a permit to protest in Crawford, so the 400-vehicle procession just roared through town, honking horns and waving signs that said, "Don't Bush Whack the Waco VA."

"We're not going to have it," says Bill Mahon, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and now heads a coalition of veterans' organizations in McLennan County, where Crawford is located. Mr. Mahon, 52 years old, was a Bush supporter in 2000, but the proposed hospital closure in Waco has him rethinking how he will vote next year.

President Bush is riding high in opinion polls, largely because of public support for the wars in Iraq and against terrorism. But the dust-up over VA hospitals shows that domestic issues never are far from the public consciousness and that, at any moment, a little-noticed issue can blow up into a big problem that lands, quite literally, on the president's doorstep.

Veterans tend to be conservative and make up one of the president's core constituencies. But they are an aging population that is increasingly dependent on just the sort of social spending the administration might feel compelled to rein in, lest soaring deficits sap the struggling economic recovery. Veterans' groups already were upset at a House spending bill that contained less funding than expected for their medical care.

Moreover, VA facilities have become the health-care provider of first resort for millions of additional Americans in recent years, so any proposed changes strike a much deeper chord now than they would have less than a decade ago. Since Congress in 1996 extended medical benefits to all veterans -- not just indigent ones or those with service-related injuries -- the number of veterans seeking care at VA facilities has nearly doubled to almost seven million a year.

That has put a huge strain on an aging system largely built in the aftermath of World War II, drastically increasing waiting times and government expenditures. The administration has cut waiting times in part by ordering VA facilities to stop enrolling some higher-income veterans and to give priority to those with service-related injuries, which is expected to effectively lock out 525,000 veterans by 2005. It also has proposed fee and premium increases, expected to discourage more from seeking VA services.

The president addressed the issue only obliquely yesterday, telling the national convention of the American Legion that he had requested the largest increase in discretionary spending for the Department of Veterans Affairs in history. He also reminded the audience of the recent progress on waiting times. While his speech drew enthusiastic cheers on topics of international terrorism and war, there was only polite applause for the comments on veterans spending and health.

The realignment proposal, which the White House says is still in early stages and subject to change, is due for more attention. The chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, plans hearings on it early in September, including testimony from critics of several of the proposed hospital closings. Sen. Specter says he is reserving judgment on the proposal, but he could come under pressure from his own constituents to fight its call for shuttering a facility near Pittsburgh.

'Putting Veterans Last'

The committee's top Democrat -- Florida Sen. Bob Graham, himself a presidential candidate -- already has blasted the administration for "putting veterans last." Sen. Graham and other Democrats on the committee are backing legislation that would give Congress 60 days to block any plan to close a VA hospital. The Department of Veterans Affairs opposes the bill.

Department officials portray the plan as a needed realignment to improve care and services, while increasing efficiency. It calls for new hospitals in Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., and expanded outpatient clinics, many of them in Sunbelt states where veterans have migrated. The plan also proposes new centers for the blind in Biloxi, Miss., and Long Beach, Calif., and new spinal-cord-injury centers in Minneapolis, upstate New York, Denver and Little Rock, Ark.

But proposed closings could stir discontent in two states that Mr. Bush may need to win re-election next year: Pennsylvania and Ohio, both closely fought battlegrounds in 2000. The two states where proposed closings are prompting the loudest protests -- New York and Texas -- are magnets for media attention, even if the former is unlikely to support President Bush and the latter is unlikely to abandon him. Under the plan, hospitals also would be shuttered in Kentucky, Mississippi and California.

Waco Task Force

The Texas protests aren't limited to angry veterans. Waco Mayor Linda Ethridge, an independent, Robert Sloan, the president of nearby Baylor University, and numerous other civic and business leaders have joined a task force to fight the proposed hospital closing.

Mr. Mahon, the veterans' activist, says outraged local veterans have been "burning my phone up" since the controversy began. "If they take it from us, we may evict George Bush as a neighbor -- and we'll certainly evict him from the White House," Mr. Mahon says.

National veterans groups also are complaining about the plan. The Veterans of Foreign Wars agrees that restructuring is necessary, but has expressed "concerns" about specifics in the administration's proposal. During the annual meeting in New Orleans last week of Disabled American Veterans, members rallied outside a Republican Party gathering featuring presidential adviser Karl Rove to protest what they consider the administration's growing indifference to veterans issues.

A 15-member commission, appointed by Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi, is reviewing the department's recommendations and is expected to forward any proposed changes to him late this year. Mr. Principi could either accept the plan as a whole or resubmit it for further study.

That means Mr. Principi's decision will come just as the 2004 presidential campaign shifts into high gear.

**********************************

[HARDCORE]

QUESTION FRIEND GIMPY -

You mentioned a planned VAMC closing here in California? Is that the same California that hosted (San Diego) a $2000 a plate fund raiser but a short time back?

And which Golden State facility is scheduled to get the axe?

Thanks & VERITAS :cd: