Tens of thousands of veterans could lose their Medicaid coverage and many more face the uncertain prospect of turning to the VA for health care if Republican Medicaid and Medicare reform plans become law, the administration says.
The Departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services, in a report released Monday, said as many as 172,000 of the 600,000 veterans enrolled in Medicaid could lose their coverage under the House plan to reduce spending levels by $182 billion through 2002.Of those, 55,600 are severely disabled, under age 65, not covered by Medicare and do not have priority eligibility for VA care, the report said.
It also concluded that plans to increase premiums and deductibles for Medicare recipients could result in more than 400,000 veterans finding it financially necessary to turn to VA health care.
This is an option that is likely to be unavailable as VA programs face their own budget restraints under the GOP plan to balance the budget by 2002, the report said. The VA already limits access to its health care network to those injured while on active duty and the indigent.
"VA will not be able to care for veterans pushed out of other health-care programs if it also is suffering from devastating congressional budget cuts," VA Secretary Jesse Brown said.
"What this country must avoid is the possibility that men and women who defended this country will fall through the cracks between three shrinking programs," he said.
The report estimated that 64,000 veterans would lose their Medicaid, the federal program for the poor and the disabled, in California, Florida, New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.