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NEWS FROM….

CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS 
RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER 
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS 
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Room 333 Cannon HOB For More Information Contact:
Washington, DC 20515 Susan Edgerton @ 202-225-9756

FOR RELEASE: August 10, 2001

Evans Urges President to Ensure Care for Combat Wounded Veterans 

Congressman Finds Department of Veterans Affairs Denying Veterans Care for Conditions Incurred in Military Service

Washington, DC - In a letter sent to the President’s Crawford, Texas ranch, Congressman Lane Evans (D-IL), Democratic Leader of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, today urged President Bush to take immediate action to eliminate the crisis occurring in veterans’ health care.  Evans told the President that veterans with service-connected disabilities are being turned away from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities and denied treatment for their service-connected disabilities.

In his letter to President Bush, Evans quoted from a letter he had recently received from a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran.  The letter said:

I went to the Iowa City clinic on July 25, 2001. After filling out the forms and waiting to see a nurse at the Urgent Care Department, she said it was her unfortunate duty to tell me the clinic and hospital could not accept or see any new patients, service-connected or not…

My retained shrapnel has been causing pain and discomfort for quite some time now. This is affecting my abilities at work and my quality of life outside of work.

I could not believe that I would ever see in my lifetime service-connected veterans turned away at our V.A. hospitals or clinics! I know that the people at the Iowa City facility felt the same way; I could see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices. I truly feel for the veterans who are in even worse shape than I when they try to go for care.

“Mr. President, the mission of VA medical facilities, first and foremost, is to meet the medical care needs of service-connected disabled veterans.  Turning service-disabled veterans away from the health care system created to meet their needs is a tragic failure of our government ‘to care for him who has borne the battle’,” said Evans. 

Evans reminded Bush of a speech he gave at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) National Convention nearly a year ago on August 21, 2000, when he was a candidate for president.  “In your speech,” Evans told the President, “you said, ‘Our men and women in uniform love their country more than their comfort. They have never failed us, and we must not fail them.’  Today, Mr. President, this nation is failing our country’s veterans.” 

Evans told the President that he was aware that at least one VA medical center had acknowledged turning away veterans who require service-connected care for service-connected conditions.  Evans expressed his view that this policy was inconsistent with the mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs and violated the law.  

Evans informed the President that veterans’ waiting for months for a VA clinic appointment was not empty rhetoric, but cruel reality.  Evans said the VA medical Center in Iowa City and its outpatient clinics in Bettendorf, Galesburg, Quincy, Dubuque and Waterloo turn away 500 to 600 veterans a week according to VA.  A spokesman for these VA facilities just reported there are 3,600 men and women already on a waiting list, where they can expect to remain for up to a year. 

Evans believes that solving the crisis in veterans’ medical care requires additional funding for VA.  Congress has approved the Bush budget request for VA for fiscal year 2002 that many believe does not provide adequate funding.  Bipartisan recommendations have advocated increases of $1.2 billion more than the Bush Administration requested to provide veterans timely and quality medical care. 

Evans concluded the letter stating, “Mr. President, I trust you will keep the pledge you made to veterans last year during the VFW National Convention.  Do not allow our nation to fail its service-connected disabled veterans.  I urge you to take immediate action to ensure that no service-connected veteran seeking care for a service-connected condition is denied care by VA or subjected to unconscionable delays in receiving care...”  

  -30-


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