Department Of New Jersey
world, answering our nation's wartime call to arms. Like so many brave men and
women who honorably served before them, these new veterans are fighting, to
the death when necessary, for the freedom, liberty and security of all. Also, like
those who fought before them, toda/s veterans deserve the due respect of a
grateful nation when they come home.
Unfortunately, without urgent changes in health-care funding, our new ' ~
veterans will soon discover their battles are not over. They will be forced to fight
for the life of a health-care system that was designed specifically for their unique
needs. Just as veterans of the 20th century did, they will be forced into a long-
standing battle to fulfill America's promise to make that system accessible to all
veterans.
United, the three largest veterans service organizations in the United States -
The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American
Veterans - believe no veteran should be forced to fight for the care he or she
is entitled to receive.
We believe it is time to guarantee health-care funding for all veterans. We
believe health-care rationing must end. We believe it is time the promise is kept.
Access to quality health care for veterans has been compromised in recent
years by budget shortfalls, rising medical costs and dramatically increased
demand. VA estimates there will be 4.9 million unique veteran patients in Fiscal
Year 2003, a 31.5 percent increase from the 3.7 million projected only a year ago.
Today, some 300,000 American veterans are waiting for appointments in VA
facilities. Approximately half of those men and women will wait six months or
longer for an appointment. VA must be adequately funded to meet its own
growth and end these intolerable waiting periods.
We believe the current discretionary funding formula, in which VA must
compete with other agencies for scarce budget dollars, must be replaced. Our
organizations, with more than seven million members, strongly support passage
of the bipartisan Veterans Health Care Funding Act of 2002, introduced as H.R.
5250 by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Christopher H. Smith (R-
- J.) and Lane Evans (D-I1L). The Senate version was introduced as S. 2903 by
affix VA health-care funding to the actual average cost of care for veterans
enrolled in the system, with annual indexing for inflation. We believe the only
way VA can fulfill its mission is to guarantee the funding it needs to operate.
The brave men and women who are currently deployed to far-off regions of
the world must be assured the VA health-care system will be there for them
when they come home. If we fail to deliver that promise, if we fail to give VA a
fighting chance to fulfill its duty, what then is the new generation of veterans
expected to believe?
Disabled American Veterans
Veterans of Foreign Wars
The American Legion
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