Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9408060006
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The bill would bring major changes to the world's largest health care program by putting the Department of Veterans Affairs on a competitive basis with other care providers in the new national health care system the administration hopes to enact.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the committee, said that under the legislation the VA can ``finally evolve from an antiquated system that valiantly tried to heal men who were harmed in battle to a modern system that offers comprehensive health care to all veterans, men and women.''
The 171 Veterans Affairs hospitals and 108 outpatient clinics provide care for fewer than 10 percent of veterans, 2.3 million a year, mostly the indigent and those with service-connected medical problems.
Under the committee's legislation, which depends on the passage of a national health care reform bill, all veterans would have access to an independent VA system.
To pay for its expanded role, the VA would for the first time be eligible for federal subsidies and third-party payments available to other providers under the general health care reform bill.
The bill would provide free comprehensive health care benefits for Persian Gulf War veterans suffering from undiagnosed illnesses; veterans exposed to radiation and Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Such veterans now receive free care only for those specific health problems, and not for other problems that arise after their service.
The House Veterans' Affairs Committee is to take up the bill next week.
by CNB