NEWS FROM….

CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS

RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS

    U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FOR RELEASE: June 17, 1999 

Washington, DC -- "Repeated reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs is denying, rationing, excessively delaying or postponing the delivery of health care demands a full-scale, no-stone-unturned inquiry," says Congressman Lane Evans (D-IL), the senior Democratic member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. He likened VA health care rationing to playing Russian roulette with the health of tens of thousands of elderly, chronically ill, frail and service-connected disabled veterans. Evans called "VA rationing of health care to needy veterans a failure of political leadership in Congress by those who have and continue to refuse to provide needed funding for veterans health care. The VA health care system and the veterans it is supposed to care for are being nickled-and-dimed to death, in some cases literally."

In letters calling for investigations by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General and the General Accounting Office, Evans said recent reports of VA withholding and rationing health care to veterans must quickly be fully examined, documented and causes determined. He notes that many of the veterans who rely on VA for their health care lack health insurance. "VA is the health care safety net for millions of America’s veterans," says Evans, "and this safety net is failing veterans nationwide. Rationing care to veterans is immoral, if not illegal."

Possible incidents of health care rationing by VA cited by Evans were:

• The statement of Dr. Bennett Cecil, a physician at the VA Medical Center in Louisville, Kentucky, who was reported in U.S. News and World Report as being authorized to provide care to only 35 of 500 veterans requiring treatment of Hepatitis C, an often fatal disease, disproportionately detected in Vietnam veterans;
• A statement by Dr. Frank Kepley, Chief of Surgery Service at the North Chicago Medical Center, according to press accounts, who reported he and the staff of the VA hospital are being constantly pursued to lower costs and being discouraged from providing care for the most critically ill patients. "What are we doing for our warriors? What are we doing for these people who have made such great sacrifices? We’re moving them out of hospitals onto the street…," Dr. Kepley said according to Chicago media reports.
• Reports from Arizona of veterans facing delays of six months for knee replacement surgery and other elective surgery;
• A candid acknowledgement by Dr. John Stemple, a Vietnam veteran and Chief of Surgery at Pittsburgh VA Medical Center (Oakland unit), that (VA) hospitals have had to lay off employees and cut services to make ends meet according to a Pittsburgh press account;
• A news report from Chicago that VA doctors have declared that due to drastic budget cuts over the past several years, the lives of their patients have been endangered and their medical options limited;
• A report from Idaho that more than 800 veterans are waiting to be assigned to a primary health care provider;
• A report from a veteran forced to wait for as long as six months to have an appointment with a VA doctor;
• A report received by Evans’ office from a veteran with Hepatitis C who charged VA was rationing care to veterans; and
• VA denying treatment for Hepatitis C to George Gramlich of Sicklerville, New Jersey, a Vietnam veteran who came in contact with blood, an exposure often associated with the Hepatitis C virus, helping the wounded during his military service; and
• A news report from Arizona that VA is limiting the number of catheters it provides veterans to only ten catheters a month while veterans are using catheters three times a day.

What Evans describes as a failure of congressional leadership began with the budget debate in February and March of this year. There was widespread agreement that the budget proposed for VA was some $3 billion too low, especially in view of a new mandate to take a commanding role in the fight against Hepatitis C.

Even so, Evans was denied the opportunity to even propose an amendment increasing funding for VA next year when the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs met to review the budget. The under-funded budget was reviewed by the Committees on Veterans' Affairs, Budget and Rules, and adopted by the full House. It is awaiting action by the House Appropriations Committee. The level of funding for next year provided to the Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for VA is eight percent (8%) less than the amount approved for this year.

"Veterans are reaping the blighted harvest Congress has sown," Evans says. He expressed particular concern about reported VA failure to treat Hepatitis C, a highly contagious disease recently recognized as a very serious threat to the nation’s public health. Vietnam veterans, among others, are actually facing an epidemic. In some cases VA is apparently unwilling to even pitch pennies at it. This is inexplicable, particularly to those veterans who contracted this disease 30 years ago when they came in contact with blood in Vietnam."

The Hepatitis C virus was not identified until 1989. Until 1992, there was no reliable test for it. Thus for many veterans there was no test during their military service to establish if Hepatitis C infection was present during service. Hepatitis C often manifests no symptoms at the time the infection occurs. It may take 20-30 years for symptoms to develop. Even though blood is now routinely screened, the test is not completely foolproof and transfusions still are a risk factor for infection.

Vietnam veterans are believed to be at greater risk for Hepatitis C than other groups, in part because it was prevalent in Southeast Asia. Persons who received blood or blood products prior to 1992 may have received blood infected by the Hepatitis C virus.

Evans said a full-scale examination of withholding, denial and delay of care by VA should be initiated immediately and the results made public as soon as possible. "We need to know the full extent of this crisis", Evans said, "to help us continue the fight in Congress to provide the funding needed by VA to provide quality and timely health care to our Nation's veterans which they have earned."