Trust fund proposed for long-term veterans care - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Trust fund proposed for long-term veterans care

In the face of new estimates showing a 30 percent jump in the expected lifetime costs of health care for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee proposes creating a trust fund to set aside money for long-term costs of the current conflicts.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., said he will push the idea next year in the face of new estimates that show taking care of veterans will cost between $589 billion and $934 billion over the lifetime of the veterans.

“Congress is not taking responsibility for funding veterans when it does it piecemeal and after the fact,” Filner said, vowing to press next year to create a veterans’ trust fund by offering an amendment to “every veterans or defense bill.”

The new cost estimates were supplied by Dr. Linda Bilmes of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, who will testify Thursday before Filner’s committee about the new estimate on the total cost of the current wars.

Bilmes and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz are authors of “The Three Trillion Dollar War.” While they have not made a new total estimate of the war costs, Stiglitz said it would easily be $4 trillion or higher for the total expense.

Bilmes said the new estimates come amid signs that far more of the 1.4 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are seeking help than previously expected. “The number of veterans filing for disability benefits and using VA medical services is much higher than predicted two years ago,” she said.

Back then, Bilmes expected 366,000 to 398,000 Iraq or Afghanistan veterans to apply for disability compensation; 500,000 have already filed claims, she said. She also expected fewer than 400,000 to seek treatment in the VA medical system, “but close to 600,000 already have been treated.”

Treatment costs per veteran also are slightly higher than previously expected, she said.

Filner discussed the trust fund idea last week with major veterans service organizations but so far only one group, Veterans of Modern Warfare, has embraced the proposal. Other groups appear to be waiting for more details about how a trust fund might work before signing on.