VA Head Plans End of Free Care for Veterans Over 65

The Veterans Administration plans to ask Congress to repeal a law under which all veterans become eligible for free medical care in VA hospitals upon reaching age 65.

VA Administrator Harry Walters said that when he examined that law in light of statistics suggesting that the number of veterans over age 65 will triple in the next 15 years, “I thought to myself, ‘Good Lord, if I’ve got to treat them and must deny care to those who are most in need of it, I find it almost immoral.’ ”

“I think that law has to be re-examined, not just because of austerity but in fairness,” Walters said in an interview last week.

But veterans advocates contend that the Administration wants to deprive veterans of care just when they need it most, as they age.

Under current law, even veterans who can afford to pay or have insurance, or those who served in uniform for only a few months, become eligible for treatment in VA hospitals at age 65, regardless of whether their ailment is the result of something that happened to them when they were in uniform.

Under the VA proposal, according to documents from the Office of Management and Budget, only those who earned less than $15,000 a year would automatically get free care.

Veterans under 65 now are treated for non-service-connected ailments only if they sign a certificate saying they are too poor to pay, but the government does not try to verify their statements.

The VA plans to tighten up on treatment for these veterans too. Under proposed regulations issued last month, those under 65 “able to defray the expenses of necessary care in a non-VA facility” would no longer be treated at VA hospitals for non-service-connected problems. Generally, Walters said, that means veterans with incomes of $15,000 a year or more.

That change could be made without new laws, because Congress authorized such a “means test” in 1980.

Veterans’ groups say the proposed cuts would slash services as huge numbers of World War II and Korean War veterans are approaching their 60s and in the normal course of aging will need more care. By 1995, according to figures commonly used in the veterans’ community, two-thirds of all men over 65 will be veterans, and those over 65 normally need hospitalization two to three times as often as younger men.

R. Jack Powell, executive director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, said veterans share the Administration’s concern for reducing the budget deficit.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “what we see in this proposal is a shell game. A substantial number of the veterans excluded from health care under this proposal would, in fact, show back up at the government door qualified and eligible for federal subsidy under Medicaid or Medicare, the trust fund for which is already greatly in trouble.”

OMB documents also disclosed plans to cut the number of VA hospital beds from 78,805 in 1985 to 65,000 in 1990. Some of the beds would be converted from acute care to nursing-home care.

The Administration will also seek to force private health insurance firms to pay the VA when a person insured by the company receives VA care, except for service-connected disabilities, according to OMB documents.