Highlights from VA News Briefing for March 10, 2009

Veterans Groups Concerned About Private Insurance Proposal. In continuing coverage, the Marine Corp Times (3/10, Maze) reports, "Major veterans and military groups like the Obama administration's proposed $4.9 billion increase in the Veterans Affairs Department budget for next year, but they don't like some details, especially a proposal to raise money by billing veterans' private health insurance for some of the cost of treating service-connected injuries, illnesses and disease." Eleven veterans groups complained about the proposal "in a Feb. 27 letter to President Barack Obama, administration officials and congressional leaders." The White House "has not responded to the letter. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, who is scheduled to testify Tuesday" before the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees "about the 2010 budget, is expected to be asked by lawmakers to explain why VA thinks billing private insurance is a good idea."
Advance Appropriations A Goal For Vets Groups. The Hill (3/10, Tiron) reports, "Veterans groups have already approached committee staff members and lawmakers to ask that they press Shinseki" on the proposal. Shinseki, however, "could already be in hot water over another issue paramount to veterans groups: advance appropriations to insure predictable medical care funding, particularly for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans groups see Shinseki, a former chief of staff of the Army, as backtracking from statements he made during his confirmation hearing that clearly supported advance appropriations.
In a related story, the Wahpeton (ND) Daily News (3/10, Hevern) reports, "Wahpeton resident Carroll Quam returned" from Washington, DC, Thursday, "where he lobbied for veterans and their families." Quam, the North Dakota American Legion Department Commander, "joined a delegation of North Dakota Legionnaires also vying to fight for funding to care for the nation's veterans of past wars and to protect benefits for men and women currently serving." During his trip, Quam "connected most with a presentation given by American Legion National Commander David Rehbein," who stressed that through President Obama's budget funding for the VA, healthcare "should be granted in a timely and sufficient manner. 'Therefore, the American Legion wants approved advance appropriations of discretionary funding,' Rehbein said in a press release."
Impact: VA Budget

Clinic Official Says VA Facilities Are Waiting For Portraits Of Obama, Shinseki. In a letter to the editor of the Redding (CA) Record Searchlight (3/9) Basil Privitt, the site director for the Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Redding, wrote, "Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics across the country are awaiting delivery of the official photograph for both President Obama and...newly appointed" Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. The Government Printing Office is currently mass-producing these photos to distribute them to all federal agencies, and I can assure you" that the Redding "clinic will proudly display our president's image as soon as it arrives."
Impact: Official Portraits

Damage Done To Vets' Hearing Raises Profile Of Tinnitus. The Washington Post (3/10, HE01, Wilkinson) says that after Nathan Green "was knocked unconscious" by a rocket blast in Iraq last year, he began hearing the "high-pitched whine and static buzz of an AM radio. All the time." Nobody "knows quite how big a group Green," who suffers from tinnitus, "has joined. Based on a 2007 survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that some 23 million people in the country hear something when there is no external sound present." The Post says tinnitus "has drawn increased attention lately because the Department of Veterans Affairs counted about 400,000 veterans affected by the condition through 2006 and reported in 2008 that just over 93,000 returning Iraq veterans were affected."
Impact: OEF/OIF issues