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DAV FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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While President Bush’s fiscal year 2008 budget request would come close to providing adequate funding for veterans health care and other programs, the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) sees a number of flaws and shortcomings in the proposal that could adversely affect sick and disabled veterans. The President’s budget proposes $34.2 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system and relies on $2.3 billion in collections. The budget plan also would increase prescription co-payments from $8 to $15 and impose a three-tiered annual enrollment fee of $250, $500 or $750 for some veterans, depending on family income. But instead of going directly to the VA, those fees would be paid to the U.S. Treasury, where they conceivably could be siphoned off for other purposes. The DAV and other veterans service organizations that co-author The Independent Budget each year have recommended nearly $44.3 billion in discretionary spending for the VA, with $36.8 billion of that for veterans health care. They urge Congress to reject proposed higher pharmacy co-payments and the burdensome enrollment fees and fully fund veterans health care through direct appropriations. “The President’s co-payment and enrollment fee proposals are deliberately designed to force thousands of veterans out of the VA health care system,” said DAV National Commander Bradley S. Barton. “Because of chronic funding shortfalls, many veterans wait longer for medical appointments, VA hospitals are prevented from hiring additional nurses and other health care professionals to meet the growing demand for services and are forced to ration care,” said Commander Barton. “And no matter how generously the administration believes it is funding veterans programs, it cannot guarantee the VA receives its new budget by the beginning of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1,” he added. Another major area of concern is that while the President’s budget contains a commitment to improving the timeliness of veterans benefits claims, it does not address the adverse impact of recently passed legislation that expands attorney involvement in the process. The VA has said it will have to create a whole new bureaucracy to perform the additional accreditation and attorney fee oversight responsibilities. With a backlog of more than 600,000 pending benefits claims and processing times averaging six months for initial claims and more than two years for appeals, the attorney fees law would likely add to the VA’s woes, causing further delays and complicating an already overburdened system. The 1.3 million-member Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932, represents this nation’s disabled veterans. It is dedicated to a single purpose: building better lives for our nation’s disabled veterans and their families. For more information, visit the organization’s Web site
www.dav.org. |
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