Budget for Treating War Veterans Faulted
By Jennifer Talhelm
Associated Press
Friday, September 22, 2006; A15
The government used prewar data to estimate the cost of caring for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, contributing to a $3 billion budget shortfall at the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2005, congressional investigators found.
The department used "unrealistic assumptions, errors in estimation and insufficient data" to project its budget, the Government Accountability Office said in a report this week.
Investigators said VA failed to estimate correctly the costs for these war veterans partly because the agency could not get accurate information from the Defense Department. In addition, VA did not tell Congress in a timely way that it was struggling to meet expenses. The problems led officials to make requests for an extra $3 billion last year, the GAO said.
Secretary Jim Nicholson did not disagree with the findings. He said in a statement that VA uses "highly reliable actuarial projections of health-care demand," but that the agency continues to "refine" its modeling.
VA will receive about $31.5 billion to provide health care for about 5.4 million patients this year.
The report was requested by Democrats, who used it to criticize the Bush administration for what they said was inadequate care of veterans from the two wars.
House Democrats began circulating a letter to President Bush asking that he "fully fund" VA, so it will not have to rely on "accounting gimmicks" and "inaccurate health care projections" in developing a budget.
Investigators said VA knew 2005 would be a tight budget year and attempted to manage the expenses and cut costs. But officials were overly optimistic -- and sometimes wrong -- about how effective the changes could be.
As a result, in June 2005, with three months left in the budget year, the administration requested an extra $975 million from Congress to meet expenses. That included $273 million for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. A month later, the administration asked for $1.977 billion more for the 2006 budget year.
In response, Congress required VA to provide quarterly status reports. But the GAO review found the agency has omitted key information about the cost to treat patients.
The GAO said that the agency has since worked to improve its estimates and coordination with Congress and the administration's budget office.
source: The Washington Post
By Jennifer Talhelm
Associated Press
Friday, September 22, 2006; A15
The government used prewar data to estimate the cost of caring for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, contributing to a $3 billion budget shortfall at the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2005, congressional investigators found.
The department used "unrealistic assumptions, errors in estimation and insufficient data" to project its budget, the Government Accountability Office said in a report this week.
Investigators said VA failed to estimate correctly the costs for these war veterans partly because the agency could not get accurate information from the Defense Department. In addition, VA did not tell Congress in a timely way that it was struggling to meet expenses. The problems led officials to make requests for an extra $3 billion last year, the GAO said.
Secretary Jim Nicholson did not disagree with the findings. He said in a statement that VA uses "highly reliable actuarial projections of health-care demand," but that the agency continues to "refine" its modeling.
VA will receive about $31.5 billion to provide health care for about 5.4 million patients this year.
The report was requested by Democrats, who used it to criticize the Bush administration for what they said was inadequate care of veterans from the two wars.
House Democrats began circulating a letter to President Bush asking that he "fully fund" VA, so it will not have to rely on "accounting gimmicks" and "inaccurate health care projections" in developing a budget.
Investigators said VA knew 2005 would be a tight budget year and attempted to manage the expenses and cut costs. But officials were overly optimistic -- and sometimes wrong -- about how effective the changes could be.
As a result, in June 2005, with three months left in the budget year, the administration requested an extra $975 million from Congress to meet expenses. That included $273 million for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. A month later, the administration asked for $1.977 billion more for the 2006 budget year.
In response, Congress required VA to provide quarterly status reports. But the GAO review found the agency has omitted key information about the cost to treat patients.
The GAO said that the agency has since worked to improve its estimates and coordination with Congress and the administration's budget office.
source: The Washington Post