Another Year, Another Inadequate Budget Request for Veterans' Health Care, Says Paralyzed Veterans of America

2/3/2004

From: David J. Uchic of Paralyzed Veterans of America, 202-416-7667 or 202-368-7633 (cell)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 -- Yesterday, the Administration released its Budget Request for FY 2005 providing grossly inadequate funding of health care for our Nation's sick and disabled veterans for yet another year. The request includes only $310 million more than the FY 2004 appropriation which was only just passed two weeks ago, nearly four months late. This is the lowest appropriation request for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care made by any Administration in nearly a decade. The VA Under Secretary for Health testified last year that it requires an average yearly medical care increase of 12 percent to 14 percent to meet the cost of inflation and mandated salary increases. However, $310 million is only 1.2 percent more than the FY 2004 appropriation. The Administration's budget proposal relies far too heavily on budget gimmicks, major cuts in long term care programs, higher out-of-pocket costs for veterans, and not enough on appropriated dollars.

Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) is deeply troubled by a proposal to charge a $250 user fee for Category 7 and 8 veterans and to increase prescription co-payments from $7 to $15. Similar proposals were rejected last year by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. PVA Executive Director Delatorro McNeal stated, "Many veterans cannot afford these higher costs. The alternative for many sick and disabled veterans will be to forego necessary medical care and risk endangering their health." He emphasized that "this is yet another attempt by this Administration to pay for the services of one group of veterans out of the pockets of other veterans."

PVA is also disappointed with the major cuts in award-winning VA medical and prosthetic research. This would set the research grant program back six years to FY 1999 funding levels.

The Independent Budget, a comprehensive budget policy document co-authored by PVA, AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, and Veterans of Foreign Wars, recommended $29.8 billion for funding for veterans' health care for FY 2005. This funding request tracks the real needs of the VA to provide quality health care in a timely manner to all veterans enrolled in the system.

The lack of consistent funding for the VA along with the uncertainty attached to the process, fuels efforts to deny more veterans health care and charge veterans more for the care they receive. The VA health care system can only operate properly when it knows how much funding it is going to get and when it is going to get that funding. This cannot be accomplished through the discretionary budget process that veterans' health care is now subject to. McNeal emphasized that "Congress must pass mandatory funding legislation to ensure that VA has sufficient resources and receives those resources in a timely manner to meet existing statutory obligations for all levels of care, including the specialized services PVA members require."

PVA's National Legislative Director Richard Fuller will testify during a budget hearing before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs on the FY 2005 VA budget on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 at 9:30 a.m. in room 334 of the Cannon House Office Building.

Founded in 1946, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), is the only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated solely for the benefit and representation of individuals with spinal cord injury or disease. PVA is a dynamic, broad-based organization with more than 20,000 members in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. To learn more about PVA, visit its web site at http://www.pva.org.