VFW: New VA Budget “Significant Step”

The administration’s fiscal 2007 budget proposal provides the Department of Veterans Affairs an 8 percent or $2.65 billion increase in discretionary funding for health care. This “gives Congress a much better starting point in the appropriations process than ever before,” said Jim Mueller, commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The VFW, along with other veterans organizations, registered concern, however, about the proposal in the budget to raise prescription co-payments and impose an annual enrollment fee of $250 for almost 2 million Category 7 and 8 veterans who have no service-connected disabilities. VFW also is disturbed about the plan to almost double co-payments, from $8 to $15, for each 30-day prescription. If Congress allows those measures, an estimated 200,000 veterans would be discouraged from seeking help from the VA, and 1 million who are currently enrolled could drop out of the VA system, said the VFW.