Rippling out from individual veterans through family members, and caretakers, the affects of military combat spread wide and far causing need for care. Senate bill 2243, sponsored by Senator Patty Murray, Veterans’ Affairs Committee, would expand eligibility of the family caregiver program to include caregivers of veterans who were injured or became ill before 9/11. It would also expand services to include child care, financial planning, and legal services. Heretofore, a program was introduced to post 9/11 veterans who needed a caretaker.
“In May 2010, President Obama signed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010, legislation authorizing VA to establish a wide range of new services to support certain caregivers of eligible Post 9/11 Veterans,” according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
As noted in the press release, the bill supported only those caregivers who made sacrifices to tend to veterans “who were disabled in the line of duty since September 11, 2001.” The VA also expanded services to caregivers of veterans from all eras including access to the caregiver support line (855) 260-3274, expanded education and training for veterans at home, and other types of counseling and support groups.
The main thrust of the program provides a monthly stipend, health care coverage, travel expenses, and respite care to the post 9/11 veterans’ caregivers. US Congressman Jeff Miller, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs said, “The report underscores our reservations about expanding the caregiver program before the department addresses these major issues. These men and women deserve our support, but simply expanding a program that is already overwhelmed and plagued by mismanagement would be nothing more than an empty promise resulting in worse service and support for all veterans and caregivers.”
A report released last month by the Government Accountability Office all but eliminated hope for the expansion of the caregiver program. According to the report, “VHA officials originally estimated that about 4,000 caregivers would be approved for the program by September 30, 2014. However, by May 2014 about 15,600 caregivers had been approved.” The report went on to say the staffing, and the program’s information technology (IT) system, the Caregiver Application Tracker, were based on these early estimates.
Murray’s bill to support pre 9/11 veterans currently sits in the Veteran’s Affairs Committee with little hope of review any time soon. Meanwhile, the VA faces a sobering to-do list from the GAO to satisfy caregivers for post 9/11 veterans still waiting on promised support.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Pre 9/11 vets’ caregivers are unlikely to receive federal help