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Senator Coburn (OK) has placed
"holds" on two significant pieces of
veterans' legislation in the U.S.
Senate: S. 252, Veterans
Health Care Authorization Act of
2009, and S. 728,
Veterans' Insurance and Benefits
Enhancement Act of 2009.
Under the rules of the Senate a
"hold" allows a Senator to prevent a
bill from reaching a vote on the
Senate floor. It appears Sen.
Coburn is using this parliamentary
procedure to prevent these two bills
from going to the Senate floor and,
as a result, VA is being deprived of
essential tools to provide high
quality care to those who have
suffered in service to our nation.
VA faces a looming shortage of
health care personnel. Without
concerted and timely action, this
situation will only worsen in the
years ahead. This is especially
true as more Iraq and Afghanistan
veterans return home injured and in
need of new and specialized care.
In order to avert this problem, VA
must be able to offer competitive
salaries, work schedules, and
benefits. The provisions in
S. 252 will allow VA to
recruit and retain nurses, home
health aides, and specialty care
providers.
S. 252 also
contains measures that would improve
the efficiency of health care
delivery to veterans, including a
number of pilot programs designed to
help VA find new and innovative ways
to deliver better, faster, and more
comprehensive treatment.
Women
make up an ever growing percentage
of the Armed Forces. As such, they
are also making up an ever growing
percentage of the veterans'
population. While there have been
efforts over the years to address
the unique needs of women veterans,
there is much more that VA might
do. To that end, there are
provisions in this bill to address
current shortcomings and help VA
better respond to the increased
demand for care from women veterans.
One of
the most troubling and difficult
challenges of warfare, which can be
seen particularly in the current
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,
is diagnosing and treating those who
suffer from the invisible wounds of
war. The lack of understanding of
these injuries, the stigma
associated with them, and many other
factors make effective treatment
difficult. Last Congress, the
Veterans Mental Health and Other
Care Improvements Act, was enacted
as Public Law 110-387. This Congress
must build on those advances and
continue to provide accessible,
cutting-edge care for those
afflicted with invisible wounds.
S.. 252 would
expand eligibility and authority for
the Vet Centers to provide needed
services, and would commission a
comprehensive study on suicides
among veterans so that we can
improve efforts to prevent such
tragedies.
S. 252 will also
provide support for homeless
veterans through a proposed series
of innovative pilot programs. These
programs are designed to
significantly improve VA outreach to
these veterans, in order to help
them access the benefits and
services provided by VA.
This
comprehensive legislation, much of
which was considered and passed by
the Senate in the last Congress,
would improve benefits and services
for veterans both young and old.
S. 728, Veterans' Insurance
and Benefits Enhancement Act of
2009, addresses a broad
range of veterans' benefits. This
legislation expands insurance
programs, improves benefits for
veterans with severe burn injuries,
and secures cost-of-living increases
for certain benefits, some of which
have not been updated for decades.
Insurance enhancements include:
A new
insurance program for service-connected
disabled veterans that would provide up
to a maximum of $50,000 in level premium
term life insurance coverage. This new
program would be available to
service-connected disabled veterans who
are less than 65 years of age at the
time of application. More importantly,
unlike VA's Service-Disabled Veterans
Insurance program, the premium rates for
this program would be based on an
updated mortality table, meaning that
premiums under this program would be
fairer to veterans;
Expanded eligibility for retroactive
benefits from traumatic injury
protection coverage under the
Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance
program; and
A
$10,000 increase to the amount of
supplemental life insurance available to
totally disabled veterans. Many totally
disabled veterans find it difficult to
obtain commercial life insurance. This
legislation would provide these veterans
with a reasonable amount of life
insurance coverage.
Other
benefits include:
Extending eligibility for automobiles
and adaptive equipment for
servicemembers and veterans with severe
burn injuries;
Significantly raising the benefit rate
for parents whose children die either
during military service or as a result
of a service-connected disability; and
Securing indexed cost-of-living
increases for certain additional
benefits for veterans and their
families.
Both of
these important bills have passed the
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Unfortunately, Senator Coburn has placed
"holds" on them.
Please
give a call to Senator Coburn's
office at (202) 224-5754 and urge
him to lift his "holds" on both
bills.
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