John Boozman: “for many years, the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense have been obligated by law to share health care…”

“for many years, the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense have been obligated by law to share health care resources. Congress enacted the original sharing law, Public Law 19-174, in 1982. Through a series of hearings and business meetings, our committee found that the law was being unevenly implemented and that much more could be done. Congress recently reemphasized its commitment to this policy when it passed sections 721 to 726 of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2003. Although our committee found evidence that sharing is working very well in some locations, the two Departments have never made a strong commitment to sharing and planning future health care activities. There are many reasons that the two Departments have not shared as much as they could, but we have found in general that there was a lack of committed leadership to implementing the goals of sharing. The original sharing legislation established a VA-DOD committee to review policies and practices related to sharing of health resources. This committee was charged with identifying new or potential opportunities and making recommendations to VA, DOD and Congress. Our oversight activities revealed the joint committee had not achieved its full potential, and we made a number of changes to the committee's charge last year. The significance of H.R. 1911 is that it would expand the purposes for which the original joint committee was formed.”