Queens Vets Face Benefit Slashes

Over 40,000 Queens veterans, half of the borough’s aging vet population, face the loss of Veterans Administration routine medical treatment and prescription services if President Bush’s proposed $28.1 billion veterans’ health legislation is enacted, warned Rep. Joe Crowley this week.
In the face of escalating medical expenses, inadequate Federal appropriations for veterans’ benefits will prevent a rising number of older veterans from receiving proper care, timely treatment and the health care that members of the armed forces sign up for, according to a report prepared by the Congressional Investigation Division.
To compensate for this fiscal shortfall, said the report, the President’s budget proposes raising $2.1 billion by charging millions of veterans an annual $250 enrollment fee and doubling their co-payments for 30-day prescription drugs.
According to recent VA reports, Queens’ nearly 95,000 veterans are expected to be hit the hardest by the new federal budget. Queens has the largest concentration of vets in New York City — four times more than in Staten Island, twice as many as the Bronx, 50 percent more than Manhattan and 13 percent more than Brooklyn.
Crowley estimated that the proposed budget will force approximately 1,800 veterans in his district alone to drop out of the VA system — 325 of whom are active patients.
“I will not stand by and watch these men and women and their families who have served our country suffer so that the top one percent of Americans can receive a permanent tax cut,” Crowley said.
Other local elected officials and national veterans’ organizations rushed to agree.
Councilmember Hiram Monserrate, chair of the Veterans’ Committee, blasted “the Bush administration’s continual pattern of closing veterans’ hospitals, reducing counseling services and lack of support of New York City’s 320,000 veterans.”
Also joining Crowley in bashing the move was Richard M. Pedro, Adjutant of the New York State American Legion, who said, “Rather than consider ways to allow the VA health care system to accommodate the veterans currently using it, the White House budget for the VA seeks to drive veterans away from the health care system.”
A chart posted by the American Legion listing the VA’s current and proposed budgets for 2006, pointedly revealed that while the President’s budget has proposed a $17 million increase for veterans’ cemeteries, he was also proposing a $28 million reduction in funding for prosthetics.
Other veterans’ organizations have also spoken out against the new budget.
The Disabled American Veterans described the budget as “tightfisted and miserly, and in the end, it would seriously erode the quality of care for today’s veterans and tomorrow’s.”
The Paralyzed Veterans of America called the budget “woefully inadequate.”
Borough President Helen Marshall stressed the war’s impact on the lives of borough residents.
“This is a war time, when our veterans have been in combat,” Marshall said. “This is not a time for curtailment of services for veterans and their families.”
VA records show that over 95,000 residents living in Queens have served in six major wars — ranging from more than 35,000 World War II vets to a hardy band of less than 20 World War I vets.
Another 26,000 served in the armed forces during peacetime.
“Patriotism,” said Crowley, “is supporting the real people who have fought and continue to fight for our country, not cutting veterans’ benefits for these patriots of war.”
Victor Ross is a freelance writer.