Policy will kill VA clinics

Dear editor:

One of the best improvements in VA services in Elmore County has been the community-based clinic we now enjoy.

I was shocked to learn there is a Congressional policy that will sabotage this VA program. I just finished a letter to our senators and our congressional representative asking them to use their influence in Congress to clarify or change this unfair and inequitable policy in such a way as to enable the VA program to get back on track.

This is disgraceful. Bureaucrats at Congressional Budget Office have re-interpreted a Congressional policy to effectively deny new community-based outpatient care to 340,000 veterans. CBO says the leases have to be treated as long-term debts of the federal government, which means VA has to fund the entire 20-year cost in advance, instead of just paying the annual lease cost as it comes due.

There are hundreds of these community-based clinics across the country, and this decision means they will be shut down when their lease renewal time comes, and that will affect millions of veterans and overload VA hospitals.

I strongly urge you and all your readers to do as I have and contact senators Risch and Crapo and Congressman Simpson to ask for immediate action.

Their addresses are in the federal government section in the front of the phone book.

Instead of just giving lip service, this is a concrete way we can help our veterans.

-- Jim Breslin, Service Officer, DAV Jim McNamar Chapter 17 Mountain Home