VETERANS' CHIEF: NO PROMISE BROKEN VA HOSPITAL AID TO NON-VETS DEFENDED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 16, 1992                   TAG: 9202160083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTGOMERY, ALA.                                LENGTH: Medium
VETERANS' CHIEF: NO PROMISE BROKEN VA HOSPITAL AID TO NON-VETS DEFENDED
The federal government never promised exclusive health care for veterans, Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward Derwinski said in defending a test project in Virginia and Alabama to treat non-veterans with VA resources.
Derwinski said the belief in such a promise "is a myth in the veterans' world," The Montgomery Advertiser reported Saturday.
Alabama is at the center of a flap about the use of VA facilities and personnel. The Tuskegee VA Medical Center is one of two sites in the nation chosen for a program to admit non-veterans for some types of health care.
The other site is in Salem, where doctors and nurses who work in the VA system will go to community clinics to treat veterans and non-vets in the rural Appalachian area.
The test programs were designed to last three years, with the stated goal of improving access to health care for rural America while bringing needed revenue to the flagging VA medical system.
Some veterans' groups are opposing the test project, saying veterans deserve their own hospitals. Sen. Richard Shelby, D-Ala., has taken up their fight and is opposing the program.
But Derwinski said medical service such as that provided by the VA "was never a promise" the government made to its armed forces.
Derwinski said pressure on Congress from veterans' groups could scuttle the pilot program, slated to start in March. But Derwinski said he and Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan are moving ahead on the project.
"They are going to have to get the [Capitol] Hill to do something because, unless the Hill stops us, we are proceeding," he said.
Derwinski said the future of VA medical facilities depends on enlarging their patient base.
"The number of living veterans is decreasing and will be greatly diminished in 20 years. To justify keeping some of the 172 hospitals in the VA system open 20 years from now, they are going to have to serve a broader social need," Derwinski said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB