Fight over tainted water centers on health care - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Fight over tainted water centers on health care

A decades-old dispute over exposure to contaminated ground water at Camp Lejuene, N.C., exploded Thursday before a Senate committee into a battle over whether the Veterans Affairs Department or Defense Department should be responsible for providing health care for affected families and ended with a threat to freeze all of the Navy Department’s civilian leadership nominations.

The fight revolves around draft legislation approved by the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that authorizes health care for dependents who were exposed to environmental hazards at Camp Lejuene over a 30-year period and another group of dependents exposed to hazards at Atsugi Naval Air Facility from 1983 until about 2001.

Additionally, the bill creates a process that could someday lead to health benefits for people exposed to environmental hazards at other military bases.

The chief question about the legislation is who ought to be responsible for providing the health care. The bill puts the Defense Department and its Tricare health insurance program in charge, something that doesn’t sit well with Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the committee’s top Republican.

“It is unacceptable to me to put these people in the hands of the Department of Defense,” Burr said, complaining that the military has refused for decades to accept responsibility for contamination. “It is absurd. It is insane.”

Burr said he is particularly unhappy with the Navy for its refusal to pay for scientific studies that might provide more information about the number of people contaminated and what ill health effects they can expect.

Until the Navy pays for the studies, Burr said he was placing a hold on all Navy executive nominations that require Senate confirmation.

The bill makes the Defense Department responsible for health care because the Veterans Affairs Department and several major veterans’ organizations worried that a flood of new patients could overwhelm the VA.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a Jan. 26 letter to the committee that up to 500,000 people who lived at Camp Lejuene from 1957 to 1987 could apply for health benefits, and that estimate “could be conservative.” Caring for them would cost about $4.2 billion over 10 years, he said.

Burr said he believes the number of people who would be eligible for health care is closer to 8,000, and suggested the Tricare network of providers isn’t any better equipped than the VA to provide treatment for ailments related to toxic exposure.

Cost isn’t an issue for the VA, Burr said, proposing to pay for the care in the veterans’ health system by using unspent carryover funds in the VA budget, by reducing “lavish” executive bonuses and reducing attendance by VA workers at conferences. “It is time they had some adult supervision,” he said.

Burr failed on a series of 9-5 votes to get the Senate committee to change the legislation. He predicted the debate isn’t over because he believes the veterans’ committee overstepped its legislative jurisdiction by passing a bill to change military health benefits, a responsibility that lies with the Senate Armed Services Committee.