For Your Benefit
For and about Hawaii's military
See also: In The Military
New law accounts
for costs of livingQuestion: What was Congress' intent when it passed a law reducing co-payments for some nonservice-connected veterans?
Answer: Congress wanted to grant relief to veterans with marginal incomes, recognizing that income alone is not always a fair measure of one's standard of living because of sometimes large differences in geographic costs of living. The law took effect Oct. 1. The method Congress chose was to modify VA's system of determining veterans' ability to pay for health care by creating a geographically based income limit and reducing inpatient co-payments for those veterans whose income falls below these new geographic income thresholds.
The new geographic income thresholds are adjusted for all standard metropolitan statistical areas and are updated periodically to reflect economic changes. So the new system for Priority 7 veterans (veterans who agree to pay specified co-payments with income and/or net worth above the VA Means Test threshold and income below the HUD geographic index) retains VA's current national income threshold but takes into account local costs for near-poor veterans.
For additional information on co-payments and means testing, contact the Honolulu VA at 433-0600 or check out the VA Web site at www.va.gov/hawaii.
Q: I am a child with birth defects, and my mother was a Vietnam veteran. Are there any VA benefits available to me?
A: Congress passed legislation in November 2000, providing VA benefits to children with birth defects born to mothers who served in Vietnam. The legislation was in response to research conducted by the VA who found that the children of female veterans who served in Vietnam were at increased risk for birth defects. The VA has attempted to identify children of female veterans with birth defects since the legislation was enacted.
Any children of female Vietnam veterans who suffer from birth defects should contact the VA in writing to request benefits that include monthly monetary payments, access to health care and vocational rehabilitation.
Disabled children who apply before Nov. 30 are eligible for benefits retroactive to Dec. 1, 2001. Children who apply later will receive only prospective benefits. For more information on this subject, call the Honolulu VA.
If you have questions about your benefits as a veteran,
call Fred Ballard at the Veterans Affairs at 433-0049
or visit the VA Web site at www.va.gov/hawaii
or the Star-Bulletin at 529-4747.Gregg K. Kakesako, who covers military affairs for the Star-Bulletin,
can be reached by phone at 294-4075
or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.
