Yesterday, the House Veterans committee heard testimony on "Priority 8" veterans, defined by the VA system as those who do not have service-related disabilities and who have incomes above $28,000. (Audio available here). Representative Walz serves on the committee.
Today, the Washington Post reports Study Finds 1.8 Million Veterans Are Uninsured:
The ranks of uninsured veterans have increased by 290,000 since 2000, said Stephanie J. Woolhandler, the Harvard Medical School professor who presented her findings yesterday before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. About 12.7 percent of non-elderly veterans -- or one in eight -- lacked health coverage in 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, she said, up from 9.9 percent in 2000. Veterans 65 and older are eligible for Medicare.
Only half of these veterans are on Priority 8 status:
Nearly 8 million veterans were enrolled in the VA health system in 2006. The focus of the hearing was whether to open VA hospitals' doors to so-called Priority 8 veterans, who have no service-connected disabilities and whose earnings generally are above 80 percent of the median income where they live. Doing so would add significantly to VA's caseload and costs -- estimates range from $366 million to $3.3 billion annually -- and some veterans groups and lawmakers are concerned that it would make it harder for veterans with serious service-related health problems to get timely care.
Only about half of the 1.8 million uninsured veterans are classified Priority 8, Woolhandler said. The rest may technically be eligible for some VA care but live too far from its facilities for it to be a real option, she said.
Interesting article.
Student Loan Program Overhaul
In higher education news, the WaPo reports Student Loan Overhaul Advances:
Democrats in Congress are pushing to overhaul the nation's student loan system with legislation that would cut federal subsidies to lending companies by as much as $19 billion, channel most of those savings to student aid and ease repayment rules for borrowers.
The Senate education committee overwhelmingly approved its version of the legislation yesterday, one week after the House education panel took similar action. Senior Democrats predicted that the bills would come to a vote by the end of next month and would be reconciled without significant difficulty.
The loan program overhaul is opposed by the student lending industry, which has been the subject of scrutiny of late by states' attorneys general, who have found "new levels of corruption and deception" in the industry.
The WaPo reports that House Republicans have tended to side with the student lending industry rather than with students. Last year, we reported on campaign contributions from the industry to former House Majority Leader Boehner when he visited MSU-Mankato on behalf of Gil Gutknecht.
Meanwhile, back at MnSCU
Most of the college students in the First attend public colleges in the MnSCU system in Winona, Austin, Rochester, Mankato, Worthington, and other branch campuses in small towns. In news from Minnesota's higher education community yesterday, the MnSCU board rejected efforts by student groups to keep down tuition hikes, MPR reports:
Trustees decided to buy some time to review their budget options, rather than lower tuition increases. The additional rate reductions -- a plan that developed within the past two weeks --would have saved two-year college students up to $63 a year and as much as $29 a year for students in four-year universities.
Justin McMartin, who heads the student association for the four-year MnSCU schools, says that may not sound like much, but for students, those numbers add up.
"I know several students who work full-time jobs, live in apartments with three other guys -- a one-bedroom apartment -- and eat raman noodles everyday. Now give that student $26 or $50 and it has a lot greater impact," according to McMartin.
Netroots explore MNSCU board student rep questions
On the blogs, former Minnesota State University Student Association (MSUSA) chair Hal Kimball and pesky WSU alum and student activist DJ Danielson ponder the significance of rumors that Governor Pawlenty intends to appoint a 2007 graduate of a private four year college to serve as a student member of the MnSCU board. The young man plans to attend a grad program at MSU-Mankato/Normandale Community College (Bloomington) but has yet to spend time studying in a MnSCU classroom. Kimball asks some questions.
The rumored choice rejects two students MSUSA recommended as outlined by the statute that created the student positions on the board. The students MSUSA recommended have been active in statewide MnSCU student leadership; the governor's rumored choice, primarily in partisan student and campaign activities, though he did do a term on St. John's student senate.
There is a precedent for the governor to snub MSUSA's recommendations, as has happened once in the past. However, the student appointed to the board was a WSU student who had attended RCTC and had been active in statewide student association leadership for several years. The current choice has no such claims.
Pawlenty did receive a MSUSA recommended board candidate who is both conservative activist and MnSCU student advocate. Adam Wiegold, now attending Metro State in the Cities, is both an active member of the College Republicans and other conservative causes and a leader in MSUSA; we have to wonder just what the governor's agenda might be in selecting a candidate whose credentials are chiefly those of political operative.
Spot wonders too. He may be on to something. Going to MSU-Mankato part-time is sure to give the enterprising young Hellier cred among college students in the First, even if the campus schooling him is in Bloomington.
But maybe it's those tuition hikes and the need to appoint someone who won't raise his voice in protest. Or the need to select someone who wasn't troubled by a Republican Congress that raised the cost of student lending.
Maybe the professional wrestling experience turned the governor's head.
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) talked about the problem of uninsured Priority 8 veterans at a press conference today. I blogged about it at http://veterans.lohudblogs.com.
Posted by: Nicole Neroulias | February 21, 2008 at 01:19 PM