Schumer Visits With Vets At Batavia VA Medical Center -- Unveils New Plan To Require Full Funding For Vets Health Care And Increase Support For Batavi

Schumer Visits With Vets At Batavia VA Medical Center -- Unveils New Plan To Require Full Funding For Vets Health Care And Increase Support For Batavia

Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer visited with veterans and toured the Batavia VA Medical Center. Schumer, joined by area veterans, also said that he will push a new proposal to ensure that the budget for veterans' health care is fully funded every year. According to the New York State Division of Veterans Affairs, there are more than 30,000 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan currently living in New York.

"The short-funding and budget cuts for vets' health care have gone on for far too long," Schumer said. "The VA here serves veterans well, but even still, they need every dollar they can get their hands on to ensure that all veterans in the area receive the care they need and deserve. Year after year, Congress has to step in at the last minute when the VA runs out of money. Our veterans should never have to worry if there is going to be enough money to pay for their care. They have earned far better from the federal government."

Earlier this year, Schumer revealed that the current Administration's budget shortchanges Rochester-Finger Lakes veterans by more than $10 million for Fiscal Year 2008. Nationwide, the budget gap equals more than $2.8 billion. Schumer's report found that this massive shortfall would cost upstate New York veterans an estimated $101.4 million in medical services. There are over 637,400 veterans currently living in upstate New York with 263,600 currently receiving VA health benefits.

Right now, there are 93,456 veterans living in the Rochester - Finger Lakes Region with 37,731 enrolled in the VA health service. The Administration's budget would shortchange these vets by $10,478,514.

With 30,000 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan currently living in New York and rising, Schumer said the federal government cannot continue to maintain these debilitating shortfalls without compromising care. Schumer said that, as the Walter Reed scandal has shown, the care active duty soldiers and America's veterans receive has slipped significantly over the past six years.

As of September 2006, more than 50,500 US soldiers have suffered non-mortal wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan - a ratio of 16 wounded servicemen per fatality. This is by far the highest ratio of any recent war. In Vietnam, the ratio was 2.6 injuries per fatality. Through advancements in field medicine and overall medical technology, more servicemen and women are thankfully surviving their wounds; however, Schumer said current and past VA budgets do not account for the dramatic new and long-term burdens on VA health care. In 2005, the Senate was forced to pass an emergency $2 billion spending bill to make up for a dangerous shortfall that the VA had been denying for months. Schumer said that repeated budget cuts have created a crisis situation in the veterans' health care system.

Specifically, the budget for the second year in a row dramatically underestimates the needs of veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Though the budget includes $752 million to provide health care services for returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, it is projected that this allocation will fall significantly short of real demand. According to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, the VA's estimates that it will service only 54,000 more new OIF/OEF veterans during 2007, for a total of 109,191 could be 60,000 patients short of actual demand.

Today, Schumer announced the following steps to ensure veterans health care is fully funded every year:

• Restore the Administration's Budget Cuts - Schumer today announced that the Senate Budget Committee has fully restored funding for VA health care in the Fiscal Year 2008 Congressional Budget. The budget will add $3.5 million to more than make up for the shortfall.

Earlier this year, Schumer called on Chairman and Ranking members of the Senate and House budget committees asking them to include at least $2.85 billion in additional funding for VA medical services to make up for the shortfall. Schumer said this must include $357 million just for health care for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Mandatory Funding - Schumer said he was going to push to ensure that funding for veterans' health care is guaranteed every year. His proposal would ensure that veterans health care funding was appropriated in the same manner as Medicare and Medicaid. Right now, the budget for veterans' health care can change from year to year and can shift wildly depending on which party controls Congress or the White House.

Designating funding for the VA as "mandatory funding" would ensure that federal support for veterans' health care would be sufficient irrespective of demand. For veterans who receive treatment at the Batavia VA Medical Center, this plan would ensure that the VA is always fully funded, this $10 million gap would never occur, and veterans could count on the fact that the federal government would always provide the support our veterans need.

Schumer, a leader in the Senate, also said that for the first time there will be a hearing on the issue of full funding of veterans health care. The committee will also discuss a new cost estimate and finally do the oversight that is necessary to try and make this proposal a reality.

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