We’re glad to see the Senate move sharply to correct the Department of Veterans Affairs’ billion-dollar shortfall resulting from a failure to anticipate a flood of Afghanistan and Iraq war vets.
Yesterday the Senate approved a $1.5 billion emergency supplemental appropriation for the VA, acting 96-0 after veterans groups raised the issue and Democrats began readying a funding fix.
The VA told Congress it expects veterans’ health care to cost $1 billion more than projected the 2005 fiscal year. It had planned for 23,553 returning veterans but now says the total likely will be 103,000. The earlier estimate was based on assumptions from 2002 – before the U.S. went to war in Iraq.
Sen. Ken Salazar, a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, said he was incredulous when informed of this by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson and Undersecretary Jonathan Perlin.
“They we were saying, ‘We used 2002 numbers for the actuarial model,’ ” Salazar said. “I said, ‘That’s the problem. How can you be using 2002 data when you have new data based on what’s happened in Afghanistan and Iraq?’ ”
Salazar cautioned that the shortfall is only for the last three months of the fiscal year. Annualized, it “could be as high as 15 percent of the ($27.4 billion) health care budget for the VA. If it is that high, then we have a very serious crisis on our hands,” he said.
The surge of patients shouldn’t have caught the VA flat-footed: Although the Iraq invasion quickly toppled Saddam Hussein, the ongoing occupation has forced troops to serve extended combat tours in an environment that has taken a mental and physical toll.
After release from active duty, vets go to the VA for care. Active-duty troops normally are treated by the military medical system, but some with combat-related injuries can be treated by the VA.
“At a time when the president talks about the need for the country to be supportive of American efforts in Iraq, it’s important to be taking care of our soldiers both in Iraq as well as when they return home,” Salazar said.
“When you have this kind of shortfall, the nation is falling down on its promise.”
With military recruiting off sharply and American forces stretched thin, it’s essential that troops be assured they’ll be properly cared for if they’re wounded or injured or suffer post-deployment illness.
