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LEGISLATIVE TALKING POINTS FOR 2006 MID-WINTER CONFERENCE |
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The Independent Budget (IB), coauthored by the Disabled American Veterans, AMVETS, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Veterans of Foreign Wars, recommends that Congress appropriate $26 billion for veterans’ medical services in fiscal year (FY) 2007 just to maintain current service levels. The Administration’s budget for FY 2007 seeks $24.7 billion in appropriations for veterans’ medical services, which falls $1.3 billion short of the IB’s recommendation. The President’s FY 2007 medical care budget slightly increases the mental health services capacity; however, it continues the hiring freeze of all other direct health care providers at a time when an influx of new veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will place substantial new demands upon a system already struggling to meet its mission. This budget proposal estimates that only 109,191 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will seek treatment in 2007. This reflects a decrease of 1,375 below the number of these new war veterans the VA estimates it will treat in 2006. VA would bridge the gap between the resources needed and the appropriations requested by shifting $2.8 billion of the costs of VA medical care from the Government onto sick and disabled veterans themselves and by maintaining a freeze on new enrollments of Priority Group 8 veterans. To shift costs to veterans, The President proposes a $250 annual enrollment fee, increase pharmacy copayments for more than a million veterans seeking medical care, and establish a new collection authority. Such proposals would drive away approximately 200,000 veterans who are needed to maintain the clinical skills of medical providers and ensure VA’s high quality comprehensive medical care. The Administration declares that it will achieve $1.1 billion in savings through new management efficiencies, which VA officials have regarded as a savings goal used to reduce requests for a higher level of annual appropriations in order to fill the gap between the cost associated with VA’s projected demand for health care services and the amount the President requested. DAV opposes, and Congress has consistently rejected, the Administration’s proposals to place more of the burden of health care costs onto veterans. Higher medical care copayments and proposed user fees are nothing more than taxation upon the benefits of disabled veterans. Such fees depart from the fundamental principle that those benefits are provided to veterans by a grateful nation in partial compensation for their service and sacrifices. Assuming Congress agrees to impose these taxes on disabled veterans, assuming the projected savings from the unconscionable scheme to drive veterans away from the system created for them, and assuming all of the savings from the attainment of new efficiencies, the total budget authority would still fall short of what is needed to maintain services. The proposed budget would also make further personnel reductions in VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration at a time when benefit claims are expected to increase and when unacceptable delays already are occurring due to inadequate staffing. Based on the adverse and long-standing problems from chronic understaffing in VBA’s Compensation and Pension Service (C&P), compounded by anticipated increased claims volumes, The Independent Budget recommends 10,820 FTE for C&P Service. The President’s budget requests 9,445 FTE, which would reduce direct program FTE for handling compensation claims by 149 in 2007. The budget request concedes that the already unacceptable claims backlog would grow even larger in 2006 and 2007, and to knowingly request resource levels that will only make an intolerable situation worse, is indefensible. • Congress should provide $26 billion in appropriations for veterans’ direct medical services in FY 2007 • Congress should reject recommendations to impose additional charges upon veterans for medical care • Congress should authorize 10,820 total FTEs for C&P Service for FY 2007 SUPPORT ASSURED FUNDING IN 2006 FOR DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS HEALTH CARE One of the hottest and most visible topics debated in Congress this past year was federal funding shortages in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system. From the start of the year DAV and the nation’s other leading veterans service organizations warned of a serious shortfall in funding—that VA’s problems were growing and that a crisis was brewing. Unfortunately, the crisis was blatantly ignored by officials of the Administration and Congressional leadership, who apparently hoped this problem would simply go away. In June 2005, VA was forced to acknowledge a nearly $3 billion shortfall for fiscal year (FY) 2005/2006. The VA admitted it had miscalculated and underestimated the demand growth and other factors straining and stressing the health care system. The Independent Budget was right on target. Congress addressed the shortfall for 2005 by adding $1.5 billion in emergency supplemental funding in late August. Later, Congress provided an “emergency designation” supplemental budget of $1.22 billion to VA to cover admitted fiscal year 2006 shortages. Each year DAV, as part of the Independent Budget, fights for sufficient funding for veterans health care. Each year the level of appropriated dollars falls short of what is necessary to meet the needs of sick and disabled veterans. The current discretionary funding method, coupled with continued inadequate and frequently late budgets, has created structural under-funding that jeopardizes quality of care to America’s sick and disabled veterans. We believe funding reform for veterans’ benefits and health care services should be a top priority for any Congress and Administration as a continuing cost of national defense. As a nation, we must be willing to bear the costs of providing special benefits to this unique group—those men and women who were willing, on behalf of all Americans, to stand the watch to secure our nation in peacetime and be prepared to fight our wars to preserve our cherished freedoms and democratic values. To assure the VA health care system is maintained as a top government priority, its funding should be made through a guaranteed mechanism to remove it from competition with other politically popular but lower priority federal programs. Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD) and John Thune (R-SD) have both sponsored important bills, S. 331, the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act, and S. 963, the Veterans Health Care and Equitable Access Act, which would assure VA health care funding. DAV, along with other members of the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform, recently urged Chairman Larry Craig (R-ID) and Ranking Member Daniel Akaka (D-HI) of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, to hold hearings in this session of Congress on the funding problems we reported above and to discuss a long-term funding solution. Senators Thune and Johnson made a similar request to the Veterans Committee. Chairman Craig left only a small ray of hope for the potential scheduling of this topic before the end of the year. In this regard, the same request for a hearing on health care budget reform has been made to the Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, Steve Buyer (R-IN), to no avail. The Ranking Member of the House Committee, Representative Lane Evans (D-IL) introduced H.R. 515 in the House, the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act. DAV believes that the efforts by Congress so far, as reported above, to prop up VA health care funding have only been band-aid solutions when the VA health care system is hemorrhaging with a variety of pent-up shortages, hiring freezes, and growing waiting lists. What could be more important for Congress at a time of war than to assure the American people that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in harm’s way overseas can depend on timely access to VA health care if they need it? Our nation’s veterans deserve to be a priority in the budget. They also deserve to have their concerns about the way veterans health care is funded addressed in an official forum. Our nation’s sick and disabled veterans deserve a strong and viable health care system dedicated to their needs, especially those who have suffered catastrophic disabilities as a result of military service and will need and depend on the VA health care system and its specialized services for the rest of their lives. Please Contact your elected officials to request a hearing on veterans health care budget reform be scheduled as a top priority in the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees. Encourage House members to support H.R. 515, the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act. Encourage Senate members to support S. 331, the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act, and the budget reform provisions in S. 963, the Veterans Health Care and Equitable Access Act. SUPPORT FULL CONCURRENT RECEIPT FOR ALL DISABLED CAREER MILITARY RETIREES For nearly two decades, disabled military retirees have fought to end the unfair law that requires forfeiture of career retirement pay in order to receive veterans’ disability compensation. Finally, measures have been taken to incrementally eliminate the unfair law that bans concurrent receipt, but only for career retirees who are at least 50 percent disabled. The DAV believes an unfair law should also be repealed for everyone affected by it; there should be no eligibility criteria, based on a veteran’s level of disability, to determine entitlement to justice. Something unfair to a veteran who is 50 percent disabled, is equally unfair to a veteran with a 40 percent disability. The attempt to partially and incrementally correct the unfair offset has also led to the creation of a hodge-podge of programs with different eligibility criteria. Besides giving rise to much confusion, each new program has created unforeseen inequities that required further corrective actions. The complexity and vagueness of these programs have undoubtedly added to the costs of administration. Congress and the President must take steps to immediately and completely rectify the unjust offset between career military retirement pay and VA disability compensation. Ask your elected officials to support a full repeal of the unfair prohibition on the concurrent receipt of military retired pay and VA disability compensation for all disabled career military retirees. REESTABLISH JOINT HEARINGS FOR LEGISLATIVE PRESENTATIONS OF VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS On Monday, November 7, 2005, Representative Steve Buyer, Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, announced a new hearing schedule for the Committee, eliminating the long-standing tradition of joint hearings to present the legislative agendas of veterans service organizations. For several decades now, these joint hearings have been held each year to allow the elected leaders of veterans groups to discuss their organization’s legislative agenda and foremost concerns with the lawmakers who have jurisdiction over federal veterans programs. Senators and Representatives who serve on those committees also get the rare opportunity to address the hundreds of constituent members from these organizations who make the annual pilgrimage to Capitol Hill. The right to fully participate in the democratic process is a cornerstone of our nation. Eliminating these joint hearings is an insult to the men and women who have fought, sacrificed and died to protect our Constitutional rights, including the right to petition the government. This important dialog between veterans and their elected representatives is crucial to the democratic process and a unique opportunity for the men and women who’ve put their lives on the line for America. Many of the veterans who take part in the hearings view it as their patriotic duty, as well as a fundamental right. The new hearing schedule established by Representative Buyer fails to provide veterans with any new meaningful input into the Congressional process. Please ask your elected member of the House of Representatives to urge Chairman Buyer to restore these crucial hearings before the next Congressional session. |
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