[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14934]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                    PROVIDING FOR AMERICA'S VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, as we are in the safety and security of 
this Chamber tonight, we should not forget that at this very moment 
there are young Americans who are in harm's way in Iraq. Many have been 
killed and others, seem like, are placed in danger and are being killed 
certainly on a weekly basis; and we should never forget that. This war 
is not over. Danger continues to exist. Some of these young people will 
be wounded, and they will come back to this country, and they will join 
the ranks of the others who have served this country. They will be 
America's newest veterans, many of them with terrible injuries.

                              {time}  2000

  That is why I rise tonight to talk about the veterans, and especially 
about veterans health care in this country.
  I am increasingly concerned as I talk to veterans in my own district, 
and I am from the State of Ohio, where we have about 11 million 
citizens in the State, but well over 1 million of those are veterans. 
About 10 percent of all of the citizens in the State of Ohio are 
veterans who have served their country in the military.
  The facts are that this administration and this government is not 
doing what it should do to keep its word to our veterans and to provide 
them with the kind of high quality health care that they have been 
promised and that they are entitled to receive.
  I would like to once again remind this Chamber of a proposal that has 
come from the President to greatly increase the financial burden that 
our veterans must carry in order to get health care through the VA 
system. The President has asked that a new $250 annual enrollment fee 
be imposed upon many of our veterans, those who are within the Priority 
Group 7 and Priority Group 8 veterans; a $250 annual enrollment fee, 
just to be able to participate in the VA system.
  The President has asked that the cost that a veteran must pay for a 
prescription drug be increased from $7 a prescription to $15 a 
prescription, after we increased it from $2 to $7 just about a year-
and-a-half ago. So that is an additional financial burden that many of 
our veterans will be expected to pay.
  Then the President has asked that the cost of a clinic visit be 
increased from $15 a visit to $20 a visit.
  This represents a rather substantial financial burden, and these 
burdens are going to be placed on veterans, many of them who make as 
little as $22,000 a year.
  In addition to these financial burdens, a decision was made recently 
by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to create a new priority group of 
veterans which is called Priority Group 8. These are veterans who have 
need for medical care but their conditions are not directly related to 
their military service, and they can make as little as $22,000 a year 
in certain regions of the country because the standard for the income 
levels changes regarding where the person lives. If they live in one 
part of the country, the standard may be a little different than it is 
in a different part of the country. But in my part of the country, 
where there is high unemployment and poverty, a veteran can make as 
little as $22,000 a year and be considered higher income and be told, 
``You cannot participate in the VA health care service. You served our 
country and were discharged with an honorable discharge, but you make 
too much money, and you are in Priority Group 8, so you can no longer 
sign up for VA health care services.''
  I just think that is wrong. We spend a lot of money around here, and 
it is just wrong that we would charge our veterans more for drugs, 
charge them more for the health care they need and the health care that 
many of them cannot get anywhere else. Many veterans have lost their 
jobs, they have been downsized, their plants have closed, and they 
simply have nowhere else to go.
  So I call this to the attention of this Chamber, Mr. Speaker. I think 
we should take action to make sure that our veterans are properly cared 
for.

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