David Obey: “everyone knows that there is a crisis in veterans health care in this country. All too often a veteran who has prostate…”

“everyone knows that there is a crisis in veterans health care in this country. All too often a veteran who has prostate cancer will be told that it is going to be 3 months before he can see a specialist. There are delays in seeing almost any specialist in the system. Veterans hospitals are in many ways inadequate for the demand that they face, and there is no question that if this bill passes as is, it will make that situation worse. Now how can I say that? After all, the bill has a 6 percent increase. Here is how I can say it. Inflation, first of all, will cost at least 3 percent more this year to serve the same population. In addition, the population which will be served, or will be eligible to be served I should say, will increase by 9 percent this year. So that means that this bill would need to be 12 percent above last year for veterans health care just to stay even. This bill does about half of that. So if you pass this bill as is, veterans health care will get worse, not better, in this country, and I do not think that makes any sense.”