VA hospital chief broaches fees

The head of Spokane’s VA hospital suggested to a roomful of veterans Monday that it might be time to charge some of them fees and co-payments for medical care.

To illustrate his point, Joe Manley recalled meeting a veteran recently who was stopping by the hospital to have his prescriptions filled before traveling to his second home in Mexico. The nation may decide “higher income” veterans should pay something for their care, just as the Bush administration has proposed, he said.

“It’s a really complex answer that you in the Congress are going to have to struggle with,” Manley told Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who had scheduled the morning meeting with veterans and groups that serve them.

Murray made it clear that for her, the answer was a simple “no way.” She said the struggle over the next several months will be to defeat the proposal included this month in the president’s budget.

“We promised (armed services members) when they were recruited they would have health care when they returned from service,” Murray said. “Recruiters don’t say ‘You’ll get health care based on your income later in life.’ “

The fight will start in budget hearings next month, she said, and could carry over into the appropriations process in the spring and summer. Murray sits on the Budget, Appropriations and Veterans committees.

Manley said the administration’s proposal would only apply to veterans above a certain income level who aren’t being treated for medical problems connected to a disability that resulted from their service. He likened it to people paying more taxes as they make more money.

Stories about wealthy vets getting free care are becoming a familiar refrain in Washington, D.C., from supporters of the Bush proposal, Murray said in a later interview.

“There are wealthy people who get Social Security, too,” but they don’t lose benefits, she said.

About 100 veterans and their families at the West Central Community Center gym clearly agreed with Murray. When she asked how many believed co-payments were a good idea, no hands went up. When she asked who thought she should oppose the administration’s proposal, almost all the hands went up.

“The co-pays are going to kill some of these guys. They just don’t have the money,” said Doug Jones, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 51. “They don’t make sense.