On July 18th, Military.com reported the following:
The Department of Veterans Affairs expects to be nearly $15 billion short of what it needs to pay for benefits and health care this year and next, in part because more veterans are using VA services than expected, officials told Congress this week.
An increase in benefits claims driven by the PACT Act could leave VA benefits accounts $2.9 billion short this year. Meanwhile, health care accounts could be nearly $12 billion short next year because of higher-than-expected staffing and prescription drug costs, among other factors.
In a statement Thursday morning, the VA said it is working with the White House and Congress to address the budget shortfalls in a way that doesn’t harm veterans.
The article also notes:
Congress has yet to approve government funding for fiscal 2025, meaning lawmakers could still allocate more than the VA requested, but they also would have to reach a bipartisan agreement to ignore the previously approved budget caps.
The budget request anticipated that there would be a staffing cut of about 10,000 employees in the Veterans Health Administration. But the agency now expects to have about 20,000 more employees than the budget projected for next year, which is about 5,000 more than there are right now, according to the slideshow.
Pharmacy and prosthetic costs for next year could also be about $4 billion higher than expected if they follow the same trends in price increases as this year, the slideshow said.
More veterans using community care is also a factor in the budget shortfall, the VA said in the slideshow. The community care program allows veterans to see doctors outside the department using VA funding. The department had originally projected a 12% increase in community care costs next year, but now foresees a 16.5% increase.
Let’s remember where some of these cost increases come from. In December 2023, I reported the following (here) (here):
When an illegal immigrant under ICE detention requires healthcare, they are typically treated on-site by medical professionals. However, if specialist or emergency care is required, they may be transported to an independent private provider.
In such cases, ICE contracts with the VA’s Financial Service Center (VA-FSC) to process reimbursements to those providers. According to a report from July, ICE has hundreds of letters of understanding in which ICE’s Health Service Corps (IHSC) will reimburse providers at Medicare rates. That uses the VA-FSC’s Healthcare Claims Processing System — a portal that allows providers to submit and view claims and access other resources.
When you add administrative oversight to something new, it increases the cost. The Biden administration and much of the current Congress are not veteran’s friends. We owe our veterans a whole lot more than we owe people who are here illegally.
