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The Rush to Expand the VA
From the Cato Institute.
"The Senate voted 93-3
on Wednesday to expand health care spending for veterans. Under the
Senate bill, veterans would be able to access health care services from
facilities outside the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system.
The headlines from the last few weeks clearly illustrate the need to
reform this massive system, but the Senate’s rushed plan would
dramatically increase veterans’ health care spending without tackling
needed fundamental reforms.
Just before the vote, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released
a preliminary estimate of the bill’s costs. Because of the hurried
nature of introduction and debate, CBO was not able to fully review and
estimate costs.
CBO says that the new program would increase spending by $35 billion
over 10 years. But that doesn’t tell the full story. CBO expects initial
set-up of the new program would take several years with veteran
enrollment ramping up over time. And the bill just authorizes the new
spending until 2016. So it appears that the CBO estimate of $35 billion
just includes the cost over the first three years.
Over the longer term, CBO estimates that added annual spending would
be $50 billion a year. So if the current bill is enacted and the added
spending extended in the future, it would raise federal spending by
about $385 billion over the next decade, as illustrated in the chart
below the jump.
The $385 billion figure is likely conservative because it assumes
that costs stay flat over time. But as more veterans enroll and health
care costs increase, the figures could grow larger. CBO says that its
estimates are “highly uncertain,” which is one reason why the Senate’s
rush to push the bill through was so irresponsible.
The VA is already
the fifth largest federal agency. If the new spending is made
permanent, VA’s total budget would grow by about one-third and VA health
care spending would roughly double.
During debate on Wednesday, several senators raised concern over the
dramatic increase in VA spending without any offsetting cuts, but 75
senators swiftly brushed
it aside. Allowing any debate about large expansions of government is
apparently out of style in the Senate. But what’s needed in the VA is
fundamental restructuring, not an ill-planned gusher of new spending.
Political crises are always the most dangerous time for the growth of government. The VA crisis is proving to be no different."
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