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Guest Opinion
Veterans Divided Are Easily Conquered on VA Health
Care
By
Thomas L. Bock
National Commander, American Legion
Feb. 25, 2006 - Generations of Pvt. Ryans have laid
their lives on the line for America. They stormed the beaches on D-Day.
They marched on frostbitten feet across war-torn Korea. They waded
through swamp water in the Mekong Delta, rescued refugees from rooftops,
intercepted missiles, flew reconnaissance missions, swabbed decks and
removed tyrants from power. They may have earned a place in the Veterans
Day parade, but far too many are denied access to VA medical care.
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Related Stories by Legion |
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VA Budget Request 2007: The “Good, the Bad
and the Foggy”
Indianapolis, February 07, 2006 - President Bush’s VA budget
request for 2007 has been hailed for adding nearly $3 billion in
real appropriations for veterans health care, compared to 2006.
“That,” said American Legion National Commander Thomas L. Bock,
“is the good.”
However, he
added, it’s a budget request built on charging new annual
enrollment fees for VA care, nearly doubling drug co-payments
and driving 1.2 million veterans out of the system created
specifically for them. “That,” Bock explained, “is the bad.”
Bock added
that the budget request still relies on $1.1 billion in
cost-saving “efficiencies” - the subject of a Government
Accountability Office report released last week that criticized
past VA health-care projections from the president’s Office of
Management and Budget - and also how realistic it is for the
president to expect dramatic improvements in VA’s ability to
collect payments from insurance companies, especially since VA
is prohibited by Congress to bill Medicare.
“Those are
some of the foggy parts,” Bock said.
Click here to the rest of the story at the Legion site.
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The decision to lock VA's doors to all but those
with service-connected disabilities or economic hardship is not what
America wanted or expected. It's not what veterans deserve.
In 1996, Congress wisely reopened VA medical
facilities to all veterans. Upon enrollment, they were placed into
priority groups. There used to be seven. Now there are eight. Group 1
receives the highest priority of care, Group 8 the lowest. In January
2003, the VA secretary suspended new enrollment of Priority Group 8
veterans, effectively capping the system, leaving out in the cold anyone
in that category who came looking for a VA doctor after that deadline.
At a press conference Friday in Indianapolis, House
Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer, R-Ind., was clear about
one thing: the Group 8 suspension is not going to be lifted anytime
soon, probably ever. Because VA health care has not been properly funded
to meet the expectations of the 1996 law, veterans who fought proudly
for America are denied the thanks of a nation that believes they earned
the benefit of VA access.
Who are these Priority Group 8 veterans?
They come from all walks of life. They may or may
not have seen combat. They might make less than $30,000 a year. They
might have 10 or more prescriptions a month. VA defines them, not so
simply, as "Veterans who agree to pay specific co-payments with income
and/or net worth above the VA Means Test threshold and the Housing and
Urban Development's geographic index." These veterans are further
divided into two smaller fractions: non-compensable, 0-percent
service-connected disabled veterans and non-service-connected veterans.
Through such definitional haze, veterans are divided and conquered, one
priority group at a time, for the sake of not having to pay for them.
Title 38, U.S. Code, says veterans in Groups 1
through 6 are "entitled" to VA health care. All other veterans are
"eligible" within existing appropriations. That's a big loophole,
written into the 1996 law, just in case caring for veterans became too
expensive. Group 7 veterans, because of that loophole, are susceptible
to the same fate as Group 8s. No phrase in government is more subjective
than "within existing appropriations." Honorable military service, the
only meaningful definition of the word "veteran," is no longer reason
enough to let a former service member visit a VA doctor.
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About Commander Bock |
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Thomas L. Bock of Aurora,
Colorado was elected National Commander of the 2.7
million-member American Legion on Aug. 25, 2005 in Honolulu,
Hawaii during the 87th National Convention of the nation’s
largest veterans organization.
Bock is a Vietnam era United
States Air Force veteran. He joined the Paul C. Beck American
Legion Post 23 in 1970 and has served in key leadership
positions at the post, district, department (state) and national
level.
In Colorado, he served as
Department Commander, Department Finance Chairman for over ten
years and as Oratorical Chairman, Boys State Chairman,
Legislative Chairman and Resolutions Chairman.
His national appointments
included: Chairman of the Foreign Relations Commission,
Alternate National Executive Committeeman, National Executive
Committeeman and liaison to the Veterans Affairs and
Rehabilitation Commission. He served on the Resolutions
Sub-Committee, the Legislative Council and the Internal Affairs
Commission. Additionally, he served as president of the United
Veterans Committee of Colorado, a coalition of over 45 veterans’
organizations.
Bock worked for AT&T and most
recently served as sales manager for The American Legion
Observer, a veterans’ newspaper distributed widely in Colorado.
He and his wife Elaine have 4
children and 3 grandchildren. A Blue Star dad, Bock’s son, Adam,
is an Army CH-47 helicopter pilot currently serving in Iraq and,
also, a Legionnaire. |
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Chairman Buyer's estimated 2007 VA budget adds $1.9
billion to President Bush's Office of Management and Budget request,
which was proposed in early February, loaded with unattainable
collection figures, dubious "management efficiencies" and other
stretches of the budgetary imagination. Neither request reflects the
priorities or purpose of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
Furthermore, neither request meets the needs of a VA health-care system
facing the fast-rising medical inflation and certain demand growth from
an ongoing war.
Democrats on the committee have submitted their own
projections, calling for a $4.5 billion increase over the president's
request. Clearly, there is nothing resembling consensus on the Veterans
Affairs Committee, once considered the most nonpartisan committee on
Capitol Hill.
Last year, Chairman Buyer's estimates were clearly
out of sync with the entire veterans' community. This time last year,
The American Legion and other leading organizations warned Buyer and his
colleagues that they were not adequately projecting the budget needs for
VA health care. Not surprisingly, before the end of the fiscal 2005, VA
required $1.5 billion in emergency spending. President Bush soon
adjusted his 2006 budget request to up it by $1.6 billion due to what
were described as VA "miscalculations."
These miscalculations resulted in the shifting of
money within VA accounts -- typically away from long-awaited capital
improvements -- to keep the system in operation. VA's budget request had
been based on outdated information that completely misfired on the cost
of treating returning combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Related News on Senior Journal |
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Concern Expressed about Bush Cost Hikes in Veterans
Health Care
Air Force Association
sees an adverse impact on nation's veterans, retirees
Feb. 22, 2006 - The Air Force Association (AFA)
today expressed concern about certain provisions in the President's
Fiscal Year 2007 budget, which they say could have an adverse impact on
our nation's veterans and retirees and their families. The Bush
administration's budget would significantly increase fees and co-pays
for certain groups of individuals in both the TRICARE and Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) health care systems.
Read more...
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The American Legion trusts Congress will produce a
budget resolution for fiscal 2007 that truly pays for the VA health-care
system that every eligible Pvt. Ryan -- past, present, and future -- has
earned. Anything less is a dereliction of duty, a repeal of the 1996 law
and a bold, wrong message to send to the men and women serving in harm's
way today.
There is only one answer to this problem. The
answer is assured or mandatory funding, a formula that attaches
well-calculated dollars to the number of veterans receiving care in the
system. It's time for veterans to stop suggesting and start demanding
before another priority group gets the axe.
Editor's Note: The 2.7 million-member American
Legion is the nation's largest veterans' organization.
http://www.legion.org
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