Competitive Pay for Health Care Professionals

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, of the 21 million veterans in our country, about 750,000 live in Illinois. I hear from many of them as I travel around the State meeting with different groups. Like veterans throughout the United States, Illinois veterans are concerned about their health care. They are frustrated by lengthy wait times to get an appointment and, like all of us, they are furious about the wait list scandal uncovered this year. One factor that has contributed to the long wait times is a shortage of medical personnel at VA hospitals and clinics. In many cases there are not enough doctors and nurses to meet demand. Many of the doctors and nurses we do have are overwhelmed.

One way we can address this is to give VA doctors and nurses a raise. I am happy that VA Secretary Bob McDonald announced this morning the agency is going to lift a salary freeze on medical personnel and plans to increase compensation for the health care providers who work with our veterans. This is a positive step in improving the ailing Veterans Health Administration.

Salaries for VA doctors and nurses often are lower on average than those of their private sector counterparts, and those salaries have been frozen for 3 years. Primary care doctors and internists at VA facilities earned about 33 percent less than private sector primary care physicians in 2012, according to the Medical Group Management Association. A similar disparity can be found in nurses' pay.

Last week Secretary McDonald testified at a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing that the VA needs about 28,000 new medical staffers--doctors, nurses, other care providers, and administrative staff--to improve the timeliness of care to the 8 million veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration. We can help meet that demand if we make those jobs more competitive by adjusting the pay scale.

In the bill we passed this summer--which is now law--Congress gave Secretary McDonald the authority to fire underperformers. The other side of that coin is competitive pay for those who are performing. These doctors and nurses are caring for the men and women who put their lives at risk through military service. Let's lift the pay freeze on their salaries. The VA should have the best and the brightest medical staff out there. That means hiring the best and firing those who do not pass muster.

The shortage of health care providers is not a new issue--particularly in rural areas of the country. We have struggled with this in Illinois. The Danville and Marion VA medical centers--both in small towns far from an urban center--struggle to fill health care positions. In 2009 I offered an amendment to the fiscal year 2010 funding bill that set aside $3 million for incentive pay to help with recruitment and retention for medical personnel to serve in rural VA facilities. Raising salaries would help facilities such as these attract and keep topflight doctors and nurses.

The Veterans Health Administration is an important training ground for many medical students. At Hines VA medical center in Chicago, medical students from Loyola get much of their training in a clinical setting. The veterans benefit from the addition of these young doctors. And hopefully that experience leads to more doctors looking to the VA as a career choice. But no matter how appealing the VA is, medical school debt is a factor. The VA offers a loan repayment program that can help offset those worries, but offering pay that is more comparable to the private sector would make working for the VA health care system even more attractive to new graduates and would help retain current staff.

The VA cares for America's heroes, the men and women who have worked to keep our country safe and defend American ideals abroad. As recent investigations have brought to light, VA must improve recruitment and retention of medical personnel to keep pace with growing demand. I am happy Secretary McDonald is lifting the salary freeze on medical personnel and plans to increase compensation for the health care providers who work with our veterans. They deserve the best.

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