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NEW ENGLAND VETS WANT HEALTHCARE FOR PRIORITY

GROUP 8 -- "I think it says to the people who are

considering military service is that the country

honors the military service in words, not deeds."

For more information about the Priority Group 8 issue, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=priority+group+8&op=ph

Story here... http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll
/article?AID=/20080224/GJNEWS02/908224306/-1/CITNEWS

Story below: 

-------------------------

Veterans want VA to provide more health care

By ROBERT M. COOK
Staff Writer
bcook@fosters.com

Veterans' groups in New Hampshire and Maine want the federal government to ease tight restrictions preventing at least 5,000 New England veterans from getting health care benefits.

Many of these people fall into a Department of Veterans Affairs category known as Priority 8, reserved for veterans never wounded in action and who earn more than $28,429 annually.

Veterans wounded in the Iraq, Afghanistan or past wars, or who earn less than the present income threshold, are entitled to health-care benefits, according to VA officials. Veterans who enrolled for VA care before the current rules took effect in 2003 are grandfathered.

"They are constantly looking for ways to cut back on who is qualified and who isn't," said Dana Hussey, adjutant of both the New Hampshire Veterans of Foreign Wars organization and VFW Post 7 in Rochester.

He said some Rochester VFW members are having difficulty accessing VA health care because of the current rules.

Some of the changes, which were made by the Bush administration, have been driven by Department of Defense budget cuts, and the DOD often cuts VA funding first, Hussey said.

Stanley Ouellette, adjutant of VFW Post 9935 in Sanford, Maine, said they're also aware of the problem. Some post members are unable to get health care from the Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta because of the income threshold, he said. He could not say how many post members are affected by the VA's policy.

"It's been this way since I came home from Iraq in 2005," said Ouellette, who served with the New Hampshire Army National Guard's 744th Transportation Company's Hillsboro detachment.

He said he got a disability pension from the VA for a rotator cuff injury suffered during his deployment that didn't bother him until after he came home. He served as a truck driver and mechanic during his tour in Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005.

Ouellette, now a member of the Maine Army National Guard's 136th Transportation Company in Sanford, said he sustained his injury when he "slipped coming out of a five-ton truck."

A state-level estimate of the number of Priority 8 veterans in Maine and New Hampshire wasn't immediately available from local and regional VA officials or the VA's Office of Policy and Planning in Washington, D.C.

There are an estimated 1.8 million veterans nationwide who are both uninsured, including being without VA health care, according to a study by Harvard Medical School researchers this fall. It did not specify how many of those veterans fall into the VA's Priority 8 category.

It examined data from two federal surveys from 1987 to 2004 and found the number of uninsured veterans rose from 9.9 percent in 2000 to 12.7 percent in 2004. The study also found the number of uninsured, working-age veterans increased by nearly 300,000 between 2000 and 2004.

David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, is one of the study's authors. Until 2003, veterans who earned incomes higher than the threshold and who did not suffer any war wounds could access affordable health care from the VA with $50 co-pays, He said.

After the Bush administration made rule changes in 2003, those veterans were shut off, he said.

"I think it says to the people who are considering military service is that the country honors the military service in words, not deeds," Himmelstein said.

It also sends a message that veterans may not get the health-care benefits they thought they would, he said.

Sandra Wunschel, a spokeswoman for the VA New England Healthcare System in Bedford, Mass., which oversees the VA medical centers in all six New England states, said there may be as many as 5,000 Priority 8 veterans in New England who are enrolled in the VA system. She said there also may be thousands of other veterans who would fall into the category if they enrolled.

Wunschel said many of the 5,000 veterans earn incomes well above the threshold and don't need health-care benefits as much as poorer veterans who earn less.

She also said many Priority 8 vets want VA services so they can get affordable prescription drugs from VA doctors.

Wunschel also believes some of the outcry is fueled by the misconceptions of older World War II or Korean and Vietnam war veterans, who may think they are entitled to free health care.

"These are complicated issues, and in our effort to educate the public, they don't always hear the correct message," Wunschel said.

Jim Thompson, a spokesman for the Manchester VA Medical Center, said he hopes currently eligible returning war in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will enroll in the VA system within the five year-window they have. That way, they'll be eligible to get benefits beyond that time even if eligibility rules change again.

John Barrett, the New Hampshire VFW service officer in Manchester, said some Priority 8 veterans may be in their mid-50s, approaching retirement age, and no longer have affordable health insurance.

Also, some Vietnam vets who chose not to enroll for VA benefits when they returned home in the 1960s and 1970s choose to apply for the first time now only to learn they're not eligible because they make too much money or because they weren't wounded in action, he said.

He said some veterans he sees end up regretting that they didn't enroll for VA benefits as soon as they left the service.

"If someone comes to me for help and I can't help them, I take that personally because I feel like I've failed them," Barrett said.

State and federal lawmakers also believe the VA needs to change its eligibility requirements to cover more veterans.

State Sen. Joseph Kenney, R-Wakefield, chaired the N.H. Cares Veterans Legislative Task Force, which examined the VA health care system to identify areas that need improvement. The panel is to release it recommendations next month.

Kenney, a Marine Corps reservist who served a tour in Iraq, said he'd like to see Priority 8 veterans have access to affordable VA benefits. Kenney said Priority 8 veterans could be permitted to enroll in the military's Tri-Care Select health insurance like national guardsmen and reservists.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-H.I., chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, held a hearing on the issue on Feb. 13. During the hearing, Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake said he'd be willing to review the current policy.

"I do believe that all veterans should have access to VA health care. The best way to accomplish that is by providing VA with the funding needed to be able to keep pace with demand," Akaka said in a statement. "Congress just provided VA with a $6.7 billion increase in health care funding over fiscal year 2007, so the funds are available."

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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org

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