I acknowledge and applaud the tremendous sacrifices veterans have made in service to our nation.  I am troubled by the state of veterans’ health care benefits and about the fact that in recent years the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) medical centers have simply not been able to meet the increasing demand for health care and medical services for all veterans.  Consequently, I have consistently supported efforts to increase funding for VA health care so that VA medical centers are able to provide services to meet the needs of veterans and better quality and more timely care to those veterans most in need of help.

 

This year, press reports exposed serious problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. House and Senate Oversight Committees conducted a series of hearings about Walter Reed and about the broader Defense Department medical system. The hearings, unfortunately, revealed substandard outpatient care and a maze of bureaucratic red-tape facing returning soldiers as they transition into the VA health care system. This was true not only at Walter Reed but at virtually every VA medical facility in the United States, including our own Hefner VA Hospital in Salisbury. As a result of these hearings, the House and Senate passed the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act to help improve outpatient medical care for wounded service members, restore integrity and efficiency to disability evaluations, cut bureaucratic red-tape and improve the transition of wounded service members from the Armed Forces to the VA system.

It is projected that in 2008 the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system will treat 5.8 million patients, including approximately 263,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Today the VA faces a backlog of 400,000 disability cases. To help meet this demand, the House and Senate approved a $6.7 billion increase in VA funding, the largest increase in the 77-year history of the VA. This funding would pay for 1,100 new processors to reduce the VA’s backlog of veterans’ disability claims. The House and Senate also passed legislation prohibiting fee increases in the military’s TRICARE program, the health care program for military personnel and retirees, and approved a cost-of-living increase for veterans with disabilities and their dependants.

Part of the money approved by Congress is to help meet the growing mental health care needs of our veterans.

Hundreds of thousands of returning veterans suffer Traumatic Brain Injury or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and at least 1,000 veterans a year commit suicide. In response, Congress approved major funding for the VA to expand mental health, PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury services. Congress also approved funding for five poly-trauma centers, which will provide intensive rehabilitation services to veterans who have suffered injuries to more than one organ system, and three Centers of Excellence for Mental Health and PTSD.

Despite the efforts of Congress, I remain concerned that we have not met the increasing demand for VA health care and mental health care services. Congress and the President need to do more to ensure that our veterans and returning soldiers receive the kind of health care they deserve.

Key Accomplishments for Veterans of the 110th Congress