Bush wants to cut vets’ care

Pictured left: Mildred Freiburger, 84, served in the Navy Medical Corps and now lives in Jennings, La., at the Southwest Louisiana War Veterans Home.

WASHINGTON – Veterans’ nursing homes run by states and the federal Veterans Affairs Department – havens for more than 40,000 former service members – are under fire in this year’s budget battles.

President Bush’s proposed 2006 budget would drastically cut financial support for up to 80 percent of the veterans in the nation’s 129 state-run homes and allow the VA to reduce the number of its nursing home beds from the 13,391 now required by law.

Congress is fighting back. Both the House and Senate adopted budget plans that do not include the Bush proposal to cut support to the state veterans’ homes. The proposal still has several steps to go before the battle is over.

With an insurgency still raging in Iraq, the proposed cuts anger Warren “Billy” Hoag, who lives at the Southwest Louisiana War Veterans Home in Jennings, La. Under Bush’s proposal, the World War II Navy veteran would not qualify for VA financial aid at the state-run home because he does not have a disability stemming from his military service.

“Cutting us back right now is not right,” said the wheelchair-bound Hoag, who claims to be 69 but is actually 83. “They always do it to veterans, but that doesn’t make it right. With a lot of scuttlebutt about it (the proposed cuts), it’s apt to happen but it makes me mad.”

In addition to the change in eligibility, the VA wants to hold back $104 million in grants it would provide next year to rehabilitate and build new state veterans homes until it can finish a study on the system’s capacity and its future needs.

Under the state veterans home program, costs are shared between the federal government and states. The VA provides 65 percent of a state home’s building cost and the state contributes 35 percent.

The state is responsible for operations and maintenance, and receives $59.36 a day from the VA for each eligible veteran living in the state-run nursing home. That funding stream would be sharply reduced if the VA stipend, known as a per diem grant, can be applied only to veterans with disabilities related to service or those who are catastrophically disabled.

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said the agency wants to revise the criteria for long-term care to focus on veterans who became disabled while on active duty and those who have catastrophic injuries, such as spinal cord problems or traumatic brain injury. Included in the new focus would be patients requiring short-term care after a hospital stay such as for hip replacements and those needing hospice or respite care, he said.

The change would mean a savings of $496 million in long-term care next year for the VA, Nicholson said.

The bulk of the savings, or $293 million, would come from reducing the per diem grants to the states, said Dr. Jonathan B. Perlin, the VA’s acting undersecretary of health.

Dr. James F. Burris, the VA’s chief consultant for geriatrics and extended care, said the new eligibility criteria, if approved, would apply only to veterans entering the VA-run and state-run nursing homes after the proposal is adopted. All current residents would continue to receive grants, he said.

Burris said veterans who don’t have disabilities related to active duty service or who are not considered in need of catastrophic care would still be able to use Medicare, Medicaid and private funds to pay for the nursing home care.

Lourdes E. Alvarado-Ramos, assistant director for the Washington Office of Veterans Affairs, said about 80 percent of the veterans currently in state-run nursing homes would no longer qualify for the VA daily support grants if the Bush proposal is approved.

She said some state veterans’ homes could be forced to shut down because the VA money provides an average of about 29 percent of a home’s revenue.