Mr. Chairman:

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to your subcommittee about a critical inequity facing New Hampshire’s veterans – the lack of full service, in state health care.

New Hampshire has not had a full service veterans’ hospital since 2001.  New Hampshire is the only state without a full-service VA hospital or comparable facility.  Veterans in Alaska and Hawaii receive care at military hospitals on base.  While New Hampshire may be a small state, it has a veteran population of over 130,000.  Unlike many New England states whose veterans populations are declining, New Hampshire’s veterans population is projected to grow over the next ten years. 

Because New Hampshire does not have a full service veterans’ hospital, our veterans are forced to travel out of state for medical care.  Veterans traveling from the most northern parts of the state can travel for 3 hours to Manchester and then may be forced to travel another hour to Boston, if referred there for care.

This routinely happens.  In 2007, 704 of our veterans were transferred out-of-state for Acute Care. 346 of those veterans were sent to Boston.

I have been calling for the VA to either restore the Manchester facility to full-service hospital care or allow NH vets to receive care locally since I came to Congress.  I have been working with both the VA and my colleagues to realize that goal.  Chairman Filner visited the Manchester Veterans facility earlier this year and held a series of events including a roundtable during which we heard about the serious burdens placed on the New Hampshire veterans and their families because we do not have a full-service hospital. 

Despite these efforts, the Administration refuses to either provide local access to care or restore full service VA hospital care to New Hampshire.  I met with Secretary Peake at the Manchester Veterans Administration Medical Center  in June to express my interest in working with him to either restore the facility to a full-service hospital or provide local access.  Unfortunately, after our meeting Secretary Peake told the local press that there would be no full-service hospital in Manchester.

The Administration’s failure to act is unacceptable.  New Hampshire’s veterans deserve the best possible care and the current system is not delivering that.  This is why I introduced H.R. 6629, the Veterans Health Equity Act of 2008.

This legislation will ensure that veterans have access to at least one full-service hospital, or that they can receive care, the same care they would get in a VA hospital, in the state.  This would mean that the VA would have to do one of two things, either restore the Manchester facility to a full-service hospital, or partner with more local health providers to make sure our Veterans can receive the care they need, in New Hampshire.

The men and women in our local VA facility have done a herculean job of caring for our vets despite the limits to access imposed on New Hampshire vets.  The Administration has very recently shown some willingness to allow radiation therapy to be provided locally.  But this is not enough.

Our veterans – regardless of whether they need radiation therapy, mental health services, acute care or anything else – need and deserve the care their counterparts in every other state receive.  It is unconscionable that we deny them this full service care and instead offer them ad hoc services.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your leadership in providing the best possible healthcare for our nation’s veterans.  I am sure you and the other members of your subcommittee appreciate the challenges created by the lack of full service hospital care in New Hampshire.  I look forward to working with you and the subcommittee to address these challenges.   

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to testify on this important issue.  I look forward to answering any questions you may have.