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Veterans May Be Asked to Pay More for Health Care
Jan. 31, 2006 – Veterans are being alerted to
possible increases in the fees they pay for government health care
programs. Veterans may see increased co-pays for drugs and higher
enrollment fees for the drug program and TRICARE, the military health
care program, in the 2007 budget. This is reported in today's Daily
Health Policy Report by KaiserNet.org, which also reports that President
Bush has taken action to designate $1.2 billion for veteran health care
as emergency funds, which assures its availability.
Daily Health Policy Report
Administration News | Bush Approves 'Emergency'
Designation for Veterans Health Care Funding
[Jan 31, 2006]
 President Bush on Monday agreed to a request from
Congress to designate $1.2 billion in funding for veterans' health care
as emergency spending, CQ Today reports.
Bush asked Congress for additional funding last
year after a shortfall was projected in the
Department of Veterans Affairs' health care budget. VA officials
have indicated the shortfall "was caused by an unexpected surge in the
number of veterans seeking treatment at the VA" and the growing costs of
long-term care, CQ Today reports.
Bush did not originally request that the funding --
included in the fiscal year 2006 Military Construction-VA spending bill
-- be designated as emergency spending, which protects the money from
congressionally imposed caps on discretionary spending and allows it to
be used during the current fiscal year.
Congress then used a budget maneuver to designate
the $1.2 billion in funding as "contingent emergency" spending, which
requires approval of the president to become emergency spending.
Bush in a letter dated Jan. 28 to House Speaker
Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said, "I did not designate the funds as
emergency requirement when I submitted the FY 2006 budget amendment.
While I believe this funding should be categorized as part of the VA's
base budget, it is critical that this funding be made available to meet
veterans' needs." Some Democratic aides said they were concerned that
the VA health care budget might not cover expenses in FY 2007 if the
emergency spending for FY 2006 is designated under VA's base funding
level (Starks, CQ Today, 1/30).
Copayments Proposed for FY 2007
In related news, White House officials and congressional aides said that
Bush plans to request a new enrollment fee and increased prescription
drug copayments for some veterans in his fiscal year 2007 budget
proposal, CQ Today reports. According to the officials and aides, the
proposal "will be virtually identical to last year's request," which
would have established a $250 enrollment fee and increased prescription
drug copays from $7 to $15 for some veterans based on their income and
disability levels, CQ Today reports. Congress last year rejected the
proposal, which VA Secretary Jim Nicholson estimated would have raised
$1.1 billion in revenue (Starks, CQ Today, 1/27).
TRICARE
In addition to that proposal, several veterans groups said that,
according to sources at the Department of Defense, Bush in his FY 2007
budget proposal plans to request an increase in some fees for TRICARE,
the military health care program.
According to the
Military Officers Association of America, the proposal over three
years would increase the enrollment fee for TRICARE Prime, the managed
care version of the program, from $230 to as high as $750 for an
individual and from $460 to as high as $1,500 for a family. In addition,
the proposal over three years would increase the enrollment fee for
TRICARE Standard, the fee-for-service version of the program, from $150
to as high as $600 for an individual and from $300 to as high as $1,200
for a family. The enrollment fee increases would begin in 2009.
Under the proposal, copays in FY 2007 would
increase from $3 to $9 for generic medications and from $5 to $15 for
brand-name treatments (Starks, CQ Today, 1/26). Rep. Daniel Akaka
(D-Hawaii) in a letter from Democrats sent to Bush on Jan. 27 wrote,
"With tens of thousands of service members deployed in Iraq and
Afghanistan, many of whom will return home this year, each of us has a
responsibility to ensure that the VA health care system receives full
appropriated funding -- without reliance on increasing out-of-pocket
fees to veterans or cutting services" (CQ Today, 1/27).
"Reprinted with
permission from kaisernetwork.org (insert hyperlink to http://www.kaisernetwork.org).
You can view the entire
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign
up for email delivery at
www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report is published for
kaisernetwork.org, a
free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2006
Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights
reserved.”
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