House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

Chairman Steve Buyer on Caring for Veterans: ‘A sacred duty’ 

A Letter from Chairman Buyer 

America is the most generous nation in the world in its support to military veterans. With our Greatest Generation World War II and Korean War veterans seeking health care in their twilight years, our Vietnam veterans now in their fifties and sixties, and a new generation of veterans returning from the global war on terror, that support has never been more important. 

Of America’s 25 million veterans, those disabled and injured in service; those with special needs, such as blindness and spinal cord injuries; and the indigent are the “core constituency” of the Department of Veterans Affairs. They are our highest priority for quality health care; however, surging enrollments are overextending VA’s health care system.    

Dramatic growth in enrollments began with The Veterans’ Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996.  The law expanded services VA could provide to all veterans not dishonorably discharged and established a system of priority groups. Core-constituency veterans are in the top priority groups.  In the lowest priority groups are veterans with no service-connected disabilities and higher incomes – and very often with other health care options.  Provision of care for them was contingent on VA having sufficient resources for its high-priority enrollees.  

With reform, enrollments more than doubled.  The number of patients without service-connected conditions and with higher incomes – the lower priority groups – rose 1,200 percent between 1996 and 2003.  More than 5 million veterans are now treated by VA. That number is growing as veterans discover VA quality health care and low-cost prescription drugs.   

America has kept faith with its veterans.  President Bush, working with Congress, has provided unprecedented increases in veterans health care funding: since 2001, VA’s health care budget has risen over 40 percent.  Yet, with a proposed 2006 record health care budget of over $30 billion, VA still treats only one-fifth of the nation’s veterans.  The influx of enrollees who are not service-connected has strained VA’s ability to provide quality care to high-priority veterans who need it most. 

This was not our intent in Congress.  Passage of reform was partly based on VA studies indicating that it would likely be budget-neutral.  Reform would encourage veterans to seek preventative care in new VA outpatient clinics, reducing the need for expensive inpatient treatment later on.  The studies proved wrong and surging enrollments have required much larger budgets (however, no veterans have been “cut” from the system).  

We must ensure that this growth does not endanger high quality veterans health care.  One solution is to ask lower priority veterans, whose health care problems are not service-connected and who have the financial means, to pay a modest enrollment fee.  There is a glaring inequity. Military retirees of 20 or more years of service must pay enrollment fees and make co-pays for their TRICARE Prime health plan.  Retirees choosing TRICARE Extra and Standard in general have higher co-pays and deductibles.

We must also manage the system better.  VFW Commander-in-Chief John Furgess, addressing Congress in March, called on VA to “start acting like a business and create a corporate culture of accountability that rewards success and penalizes failure.” 

He is right. VA must operate as efficiently as is possible.  New veterans must be assured that health care and benefits will be there for them if they are injured and in need. 

The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs has a strong record of bipartisan support for veterans that we must and will maintain.  We have recommended increases of more than $430 million to the President’s 2006 budget proposal in key areas, including health care, state nursing home partnerships, and prosthetics.   

We must help veterans transition from the military to a productive and dignified civilian life.  One of my first acts as Chairman was to form a new Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. The Subcommittee will help veterans who protected our system of free enterprise fully participate in it.   

The cause to serve veterans is personal to me. I followed my grandfather, father and brother into uniform, where I polished the values of duty, honor and country.  As a Congressman, I championed bills that improved life for servicemembers and veterans, including TRICARE for Life, pharmacy entitlements for Medicare-eligible military retirees, increased military pay and benefits, and care for those suffering from Gulf War illnesses.  

For me, one of the “absolutes” in this work is caring for those disabled in the service of this country.  It is a sacred duty.  I look forward to continuing it as Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. 

Congressman Steve Buyer is Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (http://veterans.house.gov).  A 1980 distinguished military graduate of The Citadel, he was commissioned in the U.S. Army Reserve.  In 1990, with three days notice, Congressman Buyer closed his Indiana law practice to serve on active duty in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.  

Congressman Buyer continues to serve as a Colonel in the Army Reserve.