Health Care

Veterans Health Care

Senator Rockefeller has consistently fought to get the VA health care system the money needed to take care of the nation's veterans. Over the past few years, record numbers of veterans flocked to the VA not only because of the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but also because of the skyrocketing cost of health care and prescription drugs. In order to help alleviate some of the strain on the VA health care system, Senator Rockefeller has fought to get more funding for veterans' health care, and to block proposals to increase veterans' copayments for prescription drugs.

To achieve long-term stability in VA health care, Senator Rockefeller has cosponsored legislation to make VA health care funding mandatory, not discretionary. This means that full VA funding would be mandatory every fiscal year, no longer requiring VA to compete with other departments and agencies for badly needed dollars.

Rockefeller understands that West Virginia's veterans have come to rely on the VA health care system for its constant level of care and support, and that funding for VA services must be one of our top national priorities.

Recognizing the importance of long-term care for the nation's veterans, Rockefeller authored successful legislation that required the Department of Veterans Affairs, for the first time, to provide a wide-range of extended care services -- such as home health care, adult day care, respite care, and hospice care -- to veterans who use the VA health care system.

The bill directs the VA to provide nursing home care for veterans whose disabilities are most severe, those requiring nursing home care specifically for their service-connected disabilities, and those with service-connected disabilities rated at 70 percent or greater.