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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Nolan has worked hard to help vets

Posted 10/31/14

The 2013 VA bill did nothing to address the notorious backlog in veterans benefits claims. Rep. Nolan recognized it wasn’t enough so he and his colleagues proposed to double the number of personnel …

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Nolan has worked hard to help vets

Posted

The 2013 VA bill did nothing to address the notorious backlog in veterans benefits claims. Rep. Nolan recognized it wasn’t enough so he and his colleagues proposed to double the number of personnel needed to alleviate the growing backlog of veterans’ claims. But the GOP majority voted it down. So Rick voted NO on this bill.

The Veterans Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014 was signed by the President on August 7, 2014. Still eight Republicans voted NO on this $16.3 billion bill that services the VA’s 8.4 million veterans.

Here are a couple of the improvements:

‰ Allows veterans who were enrolled in VA’s system as of August 1, 2014, to seek care from private Medicare-eligible providers if they were unable to receive a VA appointment within one month or they live more than 40 miles [as the crow flies], from a VA facility. The VA estimates that 500,000 veterans will qualify.

‰ Provides $10 billion to establish a “Veterans Choice Fund”, to reimburse private health care providers who treat eligible veterans. If or when the VA exceeds the 10 billion threshold, it will have to ask Congress for additional money.

‰A “Veterans Choice Card”, is being created to use for private care. A veteran must already be enrolled in the VA system or have served in a combat theater in the last five years to be eligible. It will be similar to an informational insurance card. VA might possibly modify existing Vets ID cards [VIC’s] to serve this purpose.

Congressman Nolan has worked endlessly to tackle the backlog of benefit claims, to insure veterans receive adequate funding for mental health treatment, PTSD, and suicide prevention, and to allow veterans in rural areas to visit their local doctor.

Representative Rick Nolan is a strong advocate for veterans. Now, due to his efforts over the last two years, we finally have a good Veterans Care Act.

John “Skip” Dickinson

Britt, Minn.