-Caveat Lector- http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-veterans- health0304mar04,0,6802201.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines Frist: Veterans May Have to Sacrifice
By SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer March 4, 2003, 4:24 PM EST WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist pledged Tuesday to support veterans concerned about President Bush's health care proposals, but also said veterans and others will have to make sacrifices should the nation go to war with Iraq. The Tennessee Republican told the American Legion that as a physician who served in veterans' hospitals, he had a richer understanding of the importance of their health care issues. But he later told reporters that the costs of the Iraq war would mean "we all have to sacrifice in various ways as we likely engage in military conflict, which we could not have anticipated a year ago, which is not fully budgeted and which ultimately will have to compete with what many of us want. "It applies to me in terms of domestic priorities and it applies to groups like the veterans today as they lobby," Frist said. Frist was among a line of congressional members that spoke at the American Legion's annual legislative conference in Washington. This year the veterans' top priority is to defeat proposals in Bush's 2004 budget request for Veterans Affairs. Bush proposed a 7.7 percent increase, to $27.5 billion, for veterans' medical care in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. But the budget request also proposed fee increases and limits on access, which are unpopular with veterans and have been rejected by the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Bush's budget also proposed charging veterans who earn about $24,000 a year or more an annual enrollment fee of $250. And it proposed increasing copayments for higher-income patients, from $15 to $20 for outpatient primary care and $7 to $15 for prescription drugs. Korean War veteran John Curran of Plymouth, Mass., told reporters that veterans should not be asked to make more sacrifices. "They already did, when they gave up their families and left their families and went overseas whether they were in support or behind the lines," Curran said. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., suggested Bush's proposed tax cuts were the reason for the curtailments in veterans' health care. "Most of us support certain tax cuts, but not if they come at the expense of everyone and everything else that matters. Not if they bury our children and grandchildren in debt and not if they force us to break our promise to the men and women who served this nation in uniform," Daschle said. He said the amount of money spent on veterans care should be tied to the size of enrollment. The House Veterans Affairs Committee last month rejected the Bush budget proposals and recommended Congress spend $29.7 billion for veterans' medical care. The measures also were heavily criticized in a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing. Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi said an increase in the veterans health care budget in the amount proposed by the House committee would help meet costs that would have been covered with the fee increases and enrollment fee. "Congress has to make some decisions. If they don't care for my policy changes then the choices are clear, either appropriate additional funding or I will have to cut back further on who I provide care to," Principi said. * __ On the Net: American Legion: http://www.legion.org/ Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov/ Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press Forwarded for your information. 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