Veterans, lawmaker join to fight plan to raise health care fees

[papau]

President's proposal that the increase in the VA budget be covered in part by asking vets to pay an enrollment fee for health care services.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-07-vets-health-increases_x.htm

Veterans, lawmaker join to fight plan to raise health care fees

By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — At 66, Air Force veteran Charles Carson is on Medicare. His Social Security benefits and odd jobs bring in up to $50,000 a year to help buy insurance to help supplement the federal health care program for seniors. He also could sign up for Medicare's new prescription-drug plan.
However, the retired Hallandale, Fla., businessman expects the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover the costs of his primary medical care and prescription drugs. He says the government owes it to him for four years of service, including guiding B-52 bombers as a ground controller.
"I gave them my time," he says. "I want what's coming to me."
What could be coming to Carson and other middle-income veterans with no service-related disabilities are higher fees and co-payments at VA facilities. The increases are included in President Bush's fiscal year 2007 budget.<snip>

[MADem]

1. They are INTENT on screwing retirees royally, too

TRICARE fees and copays are gonna go up, unless they can be stopped.

This isn't just an issue for vets who are not careerists, they are determined to milk the careerists dry as well. Bastards.

[babylonsister]

2. It's started to happen; one of my prescriptions just went up,

15 Feb, from $3 to $22. Any drug falling into the category of a non-formulary (whatever that means) is being increased per Tricare. Stand by; this isn't over by a long shot.

[AbsoluteArmorer]

3. far from over.....

Besides huge increases in medical supplies and medicine in the next 2 years, veterans also have deeper cutbacks to face in the VHA system with the ongoing increase of Iraq Vets alone. That's not taking into consideration a couple more conflicts/wars that increases troops needing VA care upon returning home between now and 2012. That's also not including the real possibility of the bird flu hitting this nation possibly within the next year. Veterans may see a huge decrease in health care before 2010 with any of these 'other' combinations that may hit all of America hard at any time. May common sense and some very good luck have mercy on us all.


http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,89556,00.html

Vets May Be Denied Health Care
Associated Press | February 28, 2006


The veterans' medical care cuts would come even though more and more people are trying to enter the system and as the number of people wounded in Iraq keeps rising. Even though Iraq war veterans represent only about 2 percent of the Veterans Administration's patient caseload, many are returning from battle with grievous injuries requiring costly care.

The White House budget office, however, assumes that the veterans' medical services budget - up 69 percent since Bush took office and which would rise by 11 percent next year under Bush's budget - can absorb cuts for three years in a row after that.



The rapidly growing budget for veterans' medical services, funded for the current year at $24.5 billion, would leap to $27.7 billion in 2007 under Bush's budget. But the medical services budget faces a 3 percent cut in 2008 and would hover below $27 billion for the next four years, even as increasing numbers of veterans from the Iraq war claim their benefits and the costs of providing care to elderly World War II and Korean War veterans continue to rise.

Those cuts would prove traumatic to the already troubled VA medical system, and would force staff cuts, delay investment in new medical equipment and deny care to hundreds of thousands of veterans.