Legion Links GAO Report to Call for Assured Funding

“The GAO report (concerning VA medical care funding, dated Feb. 1) confirms what everyone has known all along,” Legion National Commander Thomas L. Bock said. “VA’s health-care budget has been built on false claims of ‘efficiency’ savings, false actuarial assumptions and an inability to collect third-party reimbursements – money owed them. This budget model has turned our veterans into beggars, forced to beg for the medical care they earned and, by law, deserve. These deceptions are especially unconscionable when American men and women are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Bock said the GAO report amplifies the need for assured funding of VA health care. “VA must be funded on a dollars-per-veteran basis, indexed annually for inflation, with the ability to collect payments from Medicare or any other third-party insurance provider.” To view the GAO report online, visit www.veterans.house.gov/democratic/press/109th/pdf/gao06-359r.pdf.