July 29, 2003

America's Veterans
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"Instead of lumping VA health care in with flying Elvis impersonators and statues for mythological gods, let's put it where it belongs: on the same mandatory-funding stage as Social Security and Medicare," says American Legion commander Ronald F. Conley. He was referring to a list of funding examples which he compares against the need for VA health care. Mandatory funding, he asserts, will reduce the backlog of "hundreds of thousands of veterans" who are waiting to see doctors, and reinstate "tens of thousands" who have been denied access. The problem, he explains, is that more than 164,000 veterans who are in the recently created Priority Group 8 have been prohibited from entering the system "because they are not poor enough and because they lack a service-connected disability rating." This decision, according to Conley, means the Veterans Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996 is now unraveling.