IAVA Statement on White House 2010 Budget

IAVA Statement on White House 2010 Budget
Posted by Michelle McCarthy [1] on February 26 [2] 2009

IAVA Executive Director and Founder Paul Rieckhoff issued the following statement in response to the top line budget numbers released this morning by the White House: “As veterans come home from Iraq and Afghanistan to the worst economy in decades, we need to show real support for our troops and veterans.  The President seems to have put his money where his mouth is, but the devil is in the details. We must ensure that this budget does not rest on increased copays, premiums and fees for veterans.

• The top line number for veterans’ discretionary funding is about $1.2 billion higher than the amount recommended by leading veterans’ organizations, including IAVA, in the Independent Budget.  The budget plans increases in VA funding by $25 billion over five years. 

• The devil is in the details, however.  We must ensure that this budget does not rest on increased copays, premiums and fees for veterans. 

• We are also pleased to see the renewed focus on mental health care in the DOD budget, including the comprehensive TBI registry, and also the rollback of concurrent receipt limitations that unfairly cut the benefits available to disabled military retirees.

• The expansion of VA health care coverage is a major step in the right direction, but we’d like to see it happen faster.  The Administration’s planned expansion brings about 500,000 moderate-income veterans into VA health care by 2013.  About 1.8 million veterans lack health insurance, and about 565,000 veterans have been denied VA care because their income level was too high.  IAVA believes every single veteran should be eligible for VA health care.

• We are disappointed that the President has not opted to include advance appropriations for the VA in his budget proposal.  Advance appropriations doesn’t cost any additional money, it just gives VA hospitals and clinics advance notice of the funding they will receive the following year.  Right now, VA hospitals have no way of knowing what their budget will be next year, and when the budget is passed late (and it usually is), they often have to ration the care they give veterans.  Advance appropriations is a common-sense solution that Obama supported as a candidate, and it’s something we would have liked to see in the budget.”

Click here [3] for the official statement.