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Administration has no objection to House passage of H.R. 2792, which
would improve services and benefits for veterans. However, the Administration
has serious concerns with some of the bill's provisions, and will
work with Congress to amend or delete those provisions.
Specifically,
the Administration has concerns with provisions in H.R. 2792 that
would:
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Require VA to use a specific poverty index for a new geographically
based income threshold for determining a nonservice-connected
veteran's priority for receiving VA care. Current law establishes,
on a national basis, the specific income thresholds that VA uses
to determine the enrollment priority group of any given enrollee
with no service-connected disability or other special status.
While the Administration agrees with the legislation's goal of
ensuring that VA services for enrollees are effectively targeted,
the Administration has concerns about the substantial cost of
the bill's provision for geographically-based income thresholds.
This could have an adverse effect on VA's capacity to continue
to provide care to the maximum number of veterans.
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Require the creation of a new program to provide chiropractic
care. Rather than implement a new program, the Administration
would prefer to develop a pilot study to obtain information on
the operating characteristics and effects of providing chiropractic
services to veterans. The Administration is also opposed to allowing
chiropractors to act as primary care providers.
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