News Details (Posted: February 23, 2005):

Supporters Of Va Enrollment Fee Say It’s `Equity’ Issue

Full Description:

In years past, Bush administration proposals to charge low-priority VA healthcare users a $250 annual enrollment fee and higher co-payments on prescription drugs were declared "dead on arrival’’ on Capitol Hill. Not this year. The initiatives, to boost VA revenues by $424 million, appear to have survived a first vigorous round of attacks by veterans’ service organizations. Credit – or blame -- new, more fiscally-conservative chairmen of the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committee and a strategy to paint the VA enrollment fee as "only fair’’ given TRICARE enrollment fees for retirees. Jim Nicholson, the new secretary of veterans affairs, described the enrollment fee as "similar to the fee legally required of military retirees enrolled in the TRICARE system.’’ Given that military retirees must have served at least 20 years, and VA enrollees "as few as two years,’’ Nicholson suggested the VA fee is "more justified Click here to read the full story