Vet Groups Want Full Funding of VA Health Care

Representing more than 7 million military veterans, The American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars today reaffirmed their support for fully funding the veterans health care system. The organizations are members of the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform. Officials of the three veterans’ organizations stated they firmly believe that veterans have earned the right to Department of Veterans Affairs medical care through their extraordinary sacrifices and service to this nation. Yet, each year funding levels must be determined through an annual appropriations process that is fundamentally broken, they say. “Short-changing VA health care is short-changing every military veteran from Bunker Hill to Baghdad. America’s veterans are not expendable and should never be treated as such,” said American Legion commander Thomas P. Cadmus. The cumulative effects of insufficient health care funding have resulted in the rationing of medical care, the officials contend.