The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee approved a slate of health and benefits bills the week of June 25, including one that would allow more veterans to use the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical system.
The panel approved five bills by voice vote: an omnibus benefits measure (S 1315), a cost-of-living adjustment for veterans' benefits (S 423), a bill to expand vision benefits (S 1163), a traumatic brain injury and omnibus health care bill (S 1233) and a suicide-prevention bill (S 479).
The omnibus health care bill (S 1233) would allow the enrollment of veterans who do not have a disability related to their military service and whose annual incomes exceed $27,790 in the VA health system. The bill would rescind a January 2003 regulation that prohibited their enrollment.
"It has long been the position of my Democratic colleagues and I that veterans should have access to VA health care services," said Veterans' Affairs Chairman Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, in a statement. "We have fought hard to see that these veterans who have served their country honorably get the care they deserve."
As expected, Idaho Republican Larry E. Craig spoke against the proposal, saying that re-opening the system to those veterans would jeopardize the quality of care and lead to waiting times for recently returned veterans in more urgent need of care.
"If we open the door, the reality is that they will come," Craig said.
Craig estimated that as many as 17 million additional veterans would be eligible to use VA medical services, although Akaka said that only 1.5 million veterans would enter the system as a result of the change.
By a 5-10 vote, the committee rejected an amendment by Craig that would have required certification that the change would not adversely affect lower-income and service-disabled veterans, as well as veterans recently returned from combat.
The suicide-prevention bill (S 479) approved by the committee would require the VA secretary to conduct an outreach effort aimed at Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families, and to conduct a campaign to discuss mental health problems among veterans. It would require the VA to make mental health care available on a 24-hour basis.
The House passed a similar bill (HR 327) on March 21.
Filipino Veterans
The omnibus benefits bill (S 1315) would provide expanded life insurance benefits for veterans and treat Filipino World War II veterans as U.S. veterans by paying them service-connected compensation benefits at the full benefit rate for veterans residing outside the United States.
Craig opposed the Filipino veterans measure on the grounds that it would stretch the capabilities of the VA medical center in the Philippines and would not take into account the cheaper cost of living in there.
He offered an amendment that would have increased education benefits for National Guard and Reserve personnel and decreased the bill's proposed pension benefits for Filipino veterans. It failed, 6-8.
The vision bill (S 1163) approved by the panel would offer additional benefits to veterans who are blind in one eye and have only partial sight in the other.
Under current law, disability compensation is provided to veterans who are blind in one eye, and it increases if their visual acuity is 5/200 or less in the other eye. However, no extra compensation is offered if they have less-serious impairment in the second eye.
The bill would ease the requirement to receive benefits for a visual impairment in a second eye to 20/200 or less, the American Medical Association's standard for legal blindness.
The committee approved another bill (S 423) that would provide a routine cost-of-living increase next year in benefits for veterans with service-connected disabilities. It also would apply to dependency and indemnity benefits for the families of disabled veterans.
The percentage increase would be the same as the one for Social Security benefits, to be calculated later in the year.
Source: CQ Weekly
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