FARRELL Rep backs mandatory VA funding

A local clinic to provide first-line health care might be one way to improve care for veterans, the congresswoman said.
FARRELL, Pa. -- U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart of Bradford Woods, R-4th, told local veterans' representatives that she will again support legislation aimed at requiring mandatory funding of Veterans Affairs health-care programs.
Hart said she was a co-sponsor of similar legislation in the last session of Congress and will sign on again this year,.
Underfunded health care
Vincent P. Darcangelo, local veterans employment representative for a state-funded employment service in Mercer County and a Vietnam veteran himself, said veterans are concerned about the underfunding of health care and being denied quick access to health care at VA facilities.
Those programs are paid for through discretionary funding approved by Congress, and veterans would like to see that funding guaranteed annually, based on the previous year's costs, Darcangelo said.
A bill now pending in the House would guarantee that funding, he said.
Wayne Stratos, president of Mercer County Vietnam Era Veterans Inc., said veterans who are losing their jobs and turn to the VA for nonservice-related health-care issues are being turned away.
Local clinics
Hart said there has been a move to provide some of that health care at local clinics rather than at VA hospitals, often by the VA contracting with a group of local physicians. One such clinic recently opened in Beaver County, she said.
That system could work well here, Darcangelo said, and Stratos agreed, noting that a lot of veterans want minor procedures such as blood tests and flu shots that could be easily handled in a clinic setting.
Both men said the VA had been holding regular health clinics in Mercer County but has recently stopped the service.