COASTAL LIVING
      

June 2002

During the last month there has been a significant amount of multi-media coverage on numerous and varied veterans issues that cross a wide spectrum, from veterans health care to service-connected compensation for military retirees to a proposed reduction in the NC State Veterans Budget for FY2002-2003.  The issues are important and worthy of further comment, for clarification, amplification and relevance to the Carteret County veteran.

VA Health Care

On June 6, 2002, an Associated Press Release written by Laura Mechler was published in the Raleigh News and Observer under the headline "Veterans Hospital in Peril", followed by comments on a proposed major restructuring of the VA Health Care System that was taking place, which could mean the closing of many VA hospitals.  Needless to say, the article and similar ones raised concerns on how this would affect our future plans for local area care.

What precipitated the article was a VA Press Release which addresses plans to transform the VA's Health Care System to meet the future needs of the veteran population.

This is old news repackaged.  Over the last ten years the VA has changed the way it delivers health care, shifting from a focus of providing care solely at Regional Medical Centers to an integrated system focusing on prevention, early diagnosis, care up front, by promoting better and proactive health care and by improving access to care.

The VA had no real practical recourse.  The 160+ Regional Medical Centers could not meet the projected health care needs of our 25 million entitled veterans.  In North Carolina during the last three years we have seen the VA expand services at our major medical centers in Ashville, Durham, Fayetteville and Salisbury and at the satellite patient clinic in Winston-Salem.  We have in that time period seen community-based outpatient clinics added in Charlotte, Greenville, Jacksonville, Raleigh, and Wilmington.  We will soon be seeing the opening of a freestanding community-based clinic in Carteret County.

What does this policy change and this transforming of the VA's delivery of health care mean for the VA Regional Medical Centers located in North Carolina?  From my vantage point, I believe that it may change the specific services they offer, with a focus on major medical and specialty care, but I couldn't believe it would challenge its continued operation.  As for the VAMC's from New York to Chicago, I am unable to make that comment.  In many cases, these facilities are not fully being utilized.  Significant amounts of veterans have moved from the Northeast and the Midwest to the Southeast and Southwest.  The veterans who still reside in this Northeast to Midwest belt have other sources as their primary health care providers.  I believe that we are going to see an attempt of shifting resources to put the federal dollars where the veterans are located.    

What the VA is doing makes sense.  The problem and the challenge for the VA is to convince lawmakers and VA officials in those affected areas that this plan is best for the common good.

Concurrent Receipt Bill Passage

For over 100 years, federal statutes have been in place which prevent disabled military retirees from receiving both retired pay and disability compensation.  In essence, we have a practice in place where our disabled retired military pay for their own disability.  This is one of those inequities that noone disputes, but the price tag to fix it has placed it at the bottom of a stack of things to correct.  In the last six months a large non-partisan group in the Congress is taking this inequity on.  Based on their efforts, momentum continues to build to rectify this situation.

The House approved its version of the Defense Authorization Act for FY 2003 approximately five weeks ago, which addressed this inequity by adding to the legislation a five-year phase-out of the disability offset to military retired pay for retirees with 20+ years of service and a service-connected disability rating of 60% or greater.

The Armed Services Committee of the Senate followed suit with a similar plan in its draft of the Senate Defense Bill.  That said, the feeling is that before it comes to the Senate floor, all members of the Committee will support an amendment to authorize full concurrent receipt for all disabled retirees with 20+ years of service.  With over 80 senators co-sponsoring this bill, there is little doubt that the amendment will receive the Senate's approval.

The bottom line – in July, the House and Senate leadership are going to have to decide and, in turn, resolve their differences between the versions of the bill.  As they say, it's not over until it's over.

NC Senate Appropriations Committee Proposals

Needless to say, our Senate legislators are having problems finding the money to balance the State Budget.  Towards that end, in early June, the Senate Appropriations Committee of the General Assembly proposed reductions in the State Veterans Budget (FY 2002-2003) by over 12% ($1,048,000).  This includes reductions of $686,000 in the scholarship program for children of disabled veterans and eliminating eight State Service Officer positions and three District Services Offices.  This proposal got a significant amount of multi-media coverage.  These are important issues with North Carolina having more than 772,000 veterans and nearly 11% of them being in receipt of compensation or pension.  There are also over 120,000 active duty military personnel stationed in North Carolina.  The VA workload for NC veterans is ranked third in the Nation for filed claims within the US Department of Veterans Affairs.  The District Services Offices of the NC Division of Veterans Affairs play an important part in assisting veterans in obtaining entitlements by providing day-to-day technical supervision of the state's County Veterans Services Officers.  They are also responsible for their training and assisting them in obtaining and maintaining Department of Veterans Affairs certifications.

When this bill came to the floor of the Senate, the Senate did not accept the recommendations.  The Senate, in turn, approved an amendment (49-0) to keep open the three District Services Offices that were proposed to be closed.  To cover the associated costs, the scholarship program was cut by $359,135.  This was considered a palatable solution by members of the NC Veterans Commission.  Discussion continues on the impact of these scholarship cuts.