Mandantory Va Health Care Update

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Listed below is the latest DAV publication regarding mandantory VA health care funding. Please take the time to write, E-mail or call your Congressperson and Senators about this important issue.

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M E M O R A N D U M

TO: Action E-List Members

FROM: Joseph A. Violante, National Legislative Director

SUBJ: MANDATORY VA HEALTH CARE FUNDING UPDATE

DATE: September 26, 2002

Recently, Disabled American Veterans (DAV) National Commander Edward R. Heath, Sr., the National Commander of The American Legion and the Commander-in-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars sent a joint letter to every member of Congress who has not co-sponsored either H. R. 5250 or S. 2903. (An updated co-sponsor list is attached.) The letter called upon them to co-sponsor and support mandatory funding for VA health care.

Also, the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs, Inc., endorsed a resolution calling for mandatory funding for VA health care. I would encourage you to contact your state director and enlist their support for our efforts in contacting members of Congress, as well as getting your state legislature, if in session, to pass a memorial resolution supporting mandatory health care funding for VA.

I am also attaching a fact sheet that should provide you with additional arguments in support of mandatory health care funding for VA.

Again, thank you for your continued support of our efforts to provide VA with adequate funding for its health care system.


JOSEPH A. VIOLANTE
National Legislative Director





CO-SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS OF MANDATORY HEALTH CARE FUNDING

United States House of Representatives

John E. Baldacci (D-ME)
Corrine Brown (D-FL)
Henry Brown (R-SC)
Brad Carson (D-OK)
Peter A. DeFazio D-OR)
Mike Doyle (D-PA)
Chet Edwards (D-TX)
Lane Evans (D-IL)
Bob Filner (D-CA)
Barney Frank (D-MA)
Martin Frost (D-TX)
Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL)
Joel Hefley (R-CO)
Joseph M. Hoeffel (D-PA)*
Tim Holden (D-PA)
Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)
Sue Kelly (R-NY)
Ray LaHood (R-IL)
John B. Larson (D-CT)
Rick Larsen (D-WA)
Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH)
Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA)*
James P. McGovern (D-MA)
Michael R. McNulty (D-NY)
John L. Mica (R-FL)
Richard E. Neal (D-MA)
Charlie Norwood (R-GA)
Collin C. Peterson (DFL-MN)
Charles W. "Chip" Pickering, Jr. (R-MS)
Todd Platts (R-PA)
Charles B. Rangel (D-NY)
Ciro D. Rodriguez (D-TX)
Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
Max Sandlin (D-TX)
Ronnie Shows (D-MS)
Rob Simmons (R-CT)*
Adam Smith (D-WA)
Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ)
John R. Thune (R-SD)
Karen L. Thurman (D-FL)
Ed Whitfield (R-KY)
Lynn C. Woolsey (D-CA)

Frank D. Lucas (R-OK) (signed pledge only)

United States Senate

Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)*
Paul D. Wellstone (DFL-MN)

Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) (signed pledge only)

* = Co-sponsored and signed DAV Pledge to support

Names in Bold = New co-sponsors

Last Updated 9/25/02
Will be updated weekly.





VETERANS DESERVE ADEQUATE & SUSTAINABLE FUNDING FOR THEIR HEALTH CARE

BACKGROUND

VA health care is the only major Federal health care program that isn't funded by a fixed formula. Medicare, Medicaid, and military and federal employee health care are mandatory programs.
Despite budget increases in the past three years, VA health care funding has not kept pace with the demand by veterans for services.
Last year, VA projected 3.7 million veterans would use VA health care services; In July, VA revised that estimate to 4.9 million veterans ? a 31.5% increase, yet the budget currently being considered by Congress does not reflect this latest estimate.
Current funding is so inadequate that in July VA reported that there are at least 300,000 veterans waiting at least six months for their first VA medical appointment, including 120,000 with no appointment at all. This figure does not include veterans who are waiting to enroll.
In the appropriations process, the need to find funds for unbudgeted increases in VA medical care forces the Congress to cut funding for other worthy programs such as NASA and the National Science Foundation, choices that cannot be explained in any rational fashion.

WHAT THE VETERANS GROUPS ARE ASKING

The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Disabled American Veterans have launched a campaign to enact H.R. 5250 in the 107th Congress.
H.R. 5250 would change VA health care from discretionary budget item to mandatory budget item by tying funding each year to the number of veterans who are enrolled on July 1 of each year.

COST OF H.R. 5250

Costs could increase each year only by the rate of inflation, or if the number of veterans in the system rose. As the number of living veterans declines, costs of VA health care could also decline.
CBO's cost estimate is based upon faulty logic, that ignores readily available facts:

Fails to deduct appropriated funding that would no longer be necessary.

Inaccurately assumes a 25% increase in enrollment during the first year -- without explanation or basis of fact ? at a time when the veteran population is decreasing.

Does not take into account the lowered average patient cost that has occurred as enrollment has increased, nor the fact that new veteran patients are far less costly than typical VA patients.

Doesn?t reflect any offsetting savings in Medicare, Medicaid, or military health care.

ALTERNATIVES TO ENACTING H.R. 5250

Continue to underfund veterans health care and effectively ?ration? care as is being done today.
Require Medicare or military, or both, to provide payment for care provided by VA. (H.R. 4939)
Cut off access to hundreds of thousand of veterans, many of whom lack or have inadequate health care coverage.

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FYI... You can link to the site below to send a free email to your own Senators and Representatives. Just type in your zip code and it willput you in contact withyour Federal, State and local elected officials. There is also an option, for a few dollars, to send a hand delivered message to your elected official's office in Washington D.C. Their fax and local numbers are also listed. The emails are usually monitored by legislative assistants and they usually disregard single emails, but do pay attention to anumber of emailsabout the same subject.

http://congress.org/