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House Veterans' Affairs Committee Examines VA Budget Outline  

Michaud Stresses Need to Address VA Health Care Access

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congressman Mike Michaud, Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health, joined fellow committee members in a hearing on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Fiscal Year 2010 budget outline.  The hearing featured testimony from VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and veterans service organizations.  An audio clip of Michaud asking Secretary Shinseki about the need to promote access to health care for rural veterans, like those in Maine, is attached.

"I appreciate the VA Secretary's commitment to work with Congress to expand access to care for our rural veterans.  This is a chief concern of many Maine veterans and something that my office hears about a lot," said Michaud.  "We have taken some positive steps forward in recent years, like opening community clinics in Maine, with more still on the way.  We've also successfully passed a program into law that will dispatch mobile VA units to rural areas of our state.  There is a lot of work ahead of us, and I am hopeful that VA's follow-through lives up to this budget's commitments."

VA included the following priorities in their budget submission:

  • Increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs by $25 billion above baseline over the next five years.
  • Dramatically increase funding for veterans health care.
  • Expand eligibility for veterans health care to over 500,000 veterans by 2013.
  • Enhance outreach and services related to mental health care and cognitive injuries, including post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, with a focus on access for veterans in rural areas.
  • Invest in better technology to deliver services and benefits to veterans with the quality and efficiency they deserve.
  • Provide greater benefits to veterans who are medically retired from service.
  • Combat homelessness by safeguarding vulnerable veterans.
  • Facilitate timely implementation of the comprehensive education benefits that veterans earn through their dedicated military service.

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