VA’s proposed $70.8B
budget covers key services

Answer: The VA is seeking $70.8 billion with the majority of the resources targeted for health care and disability compensation. The fiscal 2006 budget proposal calls for $33.4 billion in discretionary funding -- mostly for health care -- and $37.4 billion in mandatory funding, mostly for compensation, pension and other benefit programs. This represents an increase of 2.7 percent over this year's budget.

The budget ensures continuation of the presidential priority where VA is working closely with the Department of Defense to ensure that service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families are provided services. The budget includes $750 million for the capital asset realignment for enhanced services program, bringing the total department investment to date to $2.15 billion.

The budget also calls for $2.2 billion in enhanced mental health services, which is $100 million above this year's funding level. Funding for prosthetics and sensory aids is $1.2 billion, and funding for non-institutional long-term care would increase by more than 18 percent with a total investment of $400 million.

The proposed budget will enable the veterans benefit administration to maintain record increases in educational assistance and home loan programs. Vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits for service-disabled veterans will increase by $64 million. The largest expansion of the national cemetery system since the Civil War will continue with a proposed 6.4 percent increase over this year.

The budget proposal also includes legislative proposals that include ending all copayments for former prisoners of war; ending copayments for hospice care; authorizing VA to pay for emergency room care or urgent care for enrolled veterans in non-VA medical facilities; increasing pharmacy copayments to $15 from $7 for a 30-day supply of drugs; and establishing an annual enrollment fee of $250. The last two ask that non-disabled, higher income veterans (priority 7 and 8) assume a small share of their health care. Under no circumstances will a veteran make a copayment of any kind for the treatment of a service-connected condition.