[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 25, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1435]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      VETERANS HAVING HEALTH-CARE

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 25, 2001

  Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce legislation 
to ensure that all veterans, regardless of where they live, have 
equitable access to the best health care at VA medical centers across 
America, and especially in the Northeast.
  Along with Congresswoman Kelly and Congressmen Grucci, Hinchey and 
Gilman, we are introducing two bills to improve the way the VA 
allocates funding for veterans medical care across the nation.
  In 1997, Congress passed legislation that authorized the VA to 
develop a new formula for allocating veterans medical care dollars 
across the country. At the time, veterans were moving from the 
Northeast and Midwest to the South and West, and the VA's formula then 
did not address how to allocate funding with this shift.
  Unfortunately, the new formula developed by the VA still failed to 
address the changing demographics of the veterans population. The so-
called Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation formula (VERA) did begin 
to provide additional medical care dollars to areas with growing 
veterans populations, but unfortunately, the VA did so by slashing 
funding to states with veterans populations that remained stable, like 
my own state of New Jersey and others in the Northeast.
  I know firsthand about the law of unintended consequences. VERA has 
had the terrible effect of restricting access of veterans to medical 
care in my part of the country because my district in New Jersey is 
part of Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 3. This VISN has 
borne the brunt of VERA's funding shift. According to the VA's own 
figures, funding for VISN 3 has been reduced by 6 percent, or $64 
million, at a time when other VISNs saw their allocations increase by 
as much as 47 percent or even 53 percent!
  I continue to ask the VA how this practice is equitable and why 
medical care in the Northeast should be reduced.
  New Jersey has the second oldest veterans population in the nation, 
behind Florida. Our state has the fourth highest number of complex care 
patients treated at VA's hospitals. Yet New Jersey's older, sicker 
veterans are routinely left waiting months for visits to primary care 
physicians and specialists or denied care at New Jersey's two VA 
nursing homes.
  Something is fundamentally wrong with the VERA allocation formula if 
it continues to decrease funding for areas where veterans have the 
greatest medical needs. All veterans, regardless of where they live, 
have earned and deserve access to the same quality of medical care--
care that is too often denied under the current formula based.
  That is why I rise today with nearly 30 of my colleagues to introduce 
these two bills.
  The first bill, the Veterans Equal Treatment Act, would repeal the 
VERA formula and direct the VA to devise a truly equitable allocation 
formula based on need.
  The second bill, the Equitable Care for All Veterans Act, would 
require the VA to take steps to account for regional differentials--the 
differences in the costs of providing care in some areas of the country 
due to the high cost of living, long travel distances, and like--in 
determining the national means test threshold. This threshold currently 
stands at $24,000 for veterans across the country, regardless of where 
they live.
  We know that the costs of such basic necessities as housing and 
utilities differ across the country. According to the National Low 
Income Housing Coalition, the ten least affordable States include New 
Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, 
Vermont and Rhode Island. These States are parts of VISNs 1, 2 and 3--
all three VISNs fare the worst under the present VERA allocation 
formula.
  Mr. Speaker, VERA should be adjusted to reflect factors such as the 
high cost of housing in the means test. It is the least we can do to 
ensure that all veterans who need and deserve care are provided with 
access to VA medical centers.
  I strongly encourage the Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs 
Committee to hold hearings on these issues, and to move forward with 
changes to the VERA allocation formula as outlined in these two bills.

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