Posted on 06/11/2014 5:34:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass legislation designed to fix problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the amount of new spending in the measure began to clarify.
And the price tag could be a gut-check when it comes to understanding what it really costs to fulfill sacred obligations to America’s veterans. The cost of the measure could be astronomical.
That’s according to preliminary numbers circulated by the Congressional Budget Office Wednesday afternoon. The bill would give veterans new opportunities to seek care outside of the health care system provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
CBO said in a Wednesday letter to Senate Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., that since the bipartisan legislation provides broad new powers to the VA that makes for a lot of uncertainty in estimating costs, but looking only at the provisions providing access to other providers, CBO said veterans would eventually seek $50 billion in additional care each year:
CBO estimates that, under Title III, enrolled veterans would ultimately seek to increase the amount of care they receive from VA by about 60 percent. In addition, CBO expects that some of the people who are eligible to enroll but not yet enrolled would choose to enroll because of the improvement in access to health care through VA. Most of the costs incurred to provide that care would be for care financed by other payers, including Medicare; a portion of those costs would thus be offset by savings to the Medicare program. All told, CBO expects that veterans would ultimately seek additional care that would cost the federal government about $50 billion a year, on net.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the outside group the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, blasted the open-ended spending in a statement released as the vote was coming to a close.
“The ‘emergency’ designation is for sudden, unforeseen, and temporary needs — none of which define this situation — not a tool for politicians who are unwilling to pay the bills. Budgeting is about prioritizing, but by resorting to abusing the emergency escape clause, Washington is once again looking for the easy way out,” MacGuineas said. “The legislation also includes an unprecedented open-ended mandatory appropriation that basically gives the VA a blank check to spend as it wishes. Given recent reports, one would think Congress would want more accountability at the VA, not less.”
The CBO also said that the budgetary implications are difficult to assess, however:
The magnitude of those budgetary effects is highly uncertain. A significant number of veterans could receive new and expanded health care benefits under S. 2450. How many would ultimately receive those benefits and the resulting costs will depend on a number of factors that are very difficult to predict. Further, the specific parameters of the new program would depend on regulations that would need to be developed. Because the behavioral changes that would result from enacting those provisions are so uncertain, this estimate should be viewed as falling in the middle of a wide range of possible outcomes.
Sanders has said that the bill meets an obligation made to veterans.
“Our job is to make certain that every veteran in the country gets quality health care in a timely manner,” he said in a statement just after the vote. “At a time when 2 million more veterans have come into the VA in the last four years, we must ensure that there are enough doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to meet the needs of veterans in every facility in the country.”
At some point this will amount to naught, because the whole house of cards will come crashing down.
True enough, but who deserves it more, these guys or the shiftless, able-bodied bums on TANF?
Cut departments and agencies of this socialist leviathan operating as “government”. Declare every war, so that America’s finest aren’t thrown into agenda-driven quagmires. DISMANTLE the VA. Cover the medical costs of any vet.
Well then
Why not get the VA completely out of the medical biz - fire everyone involved in that sector of the agency, sell the facilities to private investors, and give all vets the same health plan that members of congress have, free for life. Bet it would pay for itself handily with a pile left over.
They are looking at the medical side of the VA, but they need to also look at the administrative side. Some of their disability ratings are bizarre and take years. It’s almost like somebody in the VA is skimming money from the disability payments.
The goal needs to be to insure all Vets have access to the same quality of care as I get.
The Veteran population will need more and more care every year for the next 40-50 years at a staggering cost if the VA system is dismantled.
There is a need to eliminate the backlog and change the bureaucratic culture but the VA system needs to remain intact. As the care is very good for the most part.
They’ll drop the “commitment” to medical care for veterans way before they do for welfare recipients, illegals, unions and the rest of their interest groups. Watch and see.
So they aren’t going to fix the problem. Just throw some more money for incompetent federal overlords to spend on new office furniture and travel junkets.
With the makeup of today's military, I would think the costs of high quality, free-for-life medical care would spiral out of control relatively quickly.
These are not the men of yesteryear's ‘greatest generation’ anymore.
BINGO, post 11 covers all big government actions.
“Veterans Groups, Lawmakers Condemn Obama Idea to Bill Private Insurers for Service-Related Care” (2009)
An Obama administration proposal to bill veterans’ private insurance companies for treatment of combat-related injuries has prompted veterans groups to condemn the idea as unethical and powerful lawmakers on Capitol Hill to promise their opposition.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/17/AR2009031702537.html
“Dems attack Romney for backing healthcare vouchers for veterans” (2011)
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/193935-dems-blast-romney-over-healthcare-vouchers-for-veterans-#ixzz34X48G2HU
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
Of course they will. Plus now they have to spend billions on medical and “family planning” services to all the illegal children flooding in.
The VA, to my understanding, is paying big “performance” bonuses to administrators which is a reason they had to cover up the wait times. These guys work for the government (taxpayers) and I’m sure they make a living wage as it is. Why should we pay a bonus for doing their job at the expense of the patients? A private insurance company wouldn’t get by with this.
Private companies do this crap all the time. The company goes broke, gets government bailouts and the executives get staggering bonuses, or the company dissolves and fires all the employees, and the executives get golden parachutes. We see it all the time. Remember the banks that got TARP funds? the government lent them billions to keep them afloat, and the executives got millions in bonuses. So it does happen with private companies.
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