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February 12, 2004
President Bush's Veterans' Budget Called Woefully Inadequate and Inexcusable
"The Administration's budget request for Department of
Veterans Affairs health care is a shocking one, providing
once again a woefully inadequate funding level for sick and
disabled veterans." (Richard B. Fuller, PVA Legislative
Director, 2/4/04)
"This deplorable budget will do nothing to alleviate the many
thousands of veterans who are waiting six months or more
for basic health care appointments with the VA. Instead, the
budget seeks to drive veterans from the system by
realigning funding, charging enrollment fees for access, and
more than doubling the prescription drug copayment. This is
inexcusable." (Edward S. Banas, Sr., VFW Commander-in-
Chief, 2/2/04)
- Inadequate funding for health care. Under the President's Fiscal Year 2005
Budget, budget authority for veterans' medical care will rise to $27.051 billion from
$26.544 billion appropriated by Congress in Fiscal Year 2004 - an increase of
only $507 million, or 1.9 percent. Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander-in-Chief
Edward S. Banas, Sr. stated that "this funding package is a disgrace and a sham."
(VFW Press Release, 2/2/04) Even VA Secretary Anthony Principi admitted that
President Bush shortchanged veterans, testifying to the House Veterans Affairs
Committee that he asked the White House for $1.2 billion more than VA received.
- New fees and copayments. Last year, President Bush proposed establishing steep
new fees and copayments for Priority 7 and Priority 8 veterans. Congress, with
bipartisan opposition to this proposal, increased the President's meager veterans'
budget to block this proposal. Despite Congress's action last year, President
Bush has again called for establishing $250 annual fees for Priority 7 and Priority
8 veterans, and increasing pharmaceutical copayments from $7 to $15 for these
same veterans. As Richard Fuller, Legislative Director of the Paralyzed Veterans
of America (PVA) points out, "punitive copayments and charges are designed not
so much to swell projected budget increases as they are to deter veterans from
seeking their care at VA medical facilities." (House Veterans Affairs Committee
hearing, 2/4/04) Along with a continuing prohibition against new Priority 8
veterans enrolling in the system, these additional fees are intended to discourage
approximately 210,000 veterans from seeking VA health care.
- Priority 8 enrollment ban. The Bush Administration claims that its Fiscal Year 2005
VA budget "fully funds all those Priority Group 8 veterans already in the system,
ensuring that no veteran currently in the system will be denied care." First of all,
this claim is not only false, but its funding comes with the price of new copayments
and fees for these Priority 8 veterans. Second, this political doublespeak is simply
another way of saying that the ban on new Priority 8 veterans enrolling in the VA
medical system, imposed last year by President Bush, will continue through Fiscal
Year 2005.
- Medical research cutbacks. The President's budget cuts funding for VA medical
and prosthetic research by $50 million from the Fiscal Year 2004 budget approved
by Congress - translating into the loss of 149 projects. The VA Medical Research
function funds research into development of new prosthetic technologies,
treatment of mental illness, prevention of cancer, effects of pathogen exposure,
and other important efforts. The President's proposal would set funding back six
years - to Fiscal Year 1999 levels.
- Exacerbated claims backlog. When President Bush took office, he promised to
significantly reduce the backlog for processing veterans' disability claims by
September 2003. Despite this promise, there are currently 348,000 veterans
across the nation waiting an average of 189 days - over 6 months - to have
their disability recognized by the VA. These veterans are being told that they must
wait for priority health care, prescription drugs, disability compensation, and other
benefits because the bureaucracy is too slow to process their paperwork.
Instead of addressing this backlog, President Bush's budget proposal would cut
540 staff who review claims for benefits like disability and pension payments.
Such a cut is likely to further exacerbate this already intolerable waiting period,
precisely at a time when a new generation of veterans returning from Iraq will be
filing disability claims.
Prepared by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee
Byron L. Dorgan, Chairman
419 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
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