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Veterans Care eligibility being expanded

Posted November 16, 2007 10:00 pm

Doug Finke

Faced with continued anemic enrollment, Illinois' much-touted program to provide health-care services to uninsured veterans is being revamped to increase eligibility.

Department of Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth said Friday current eligibility rules for the Veterans Care insurance program exclude many veterans who could benefit from it.

"We are rewriting the rules," Duckworth said. "Unfortunately, some of the (original) rules did not address the situation of veterans today."

Duckworth blamed the rules for the small number of Illinois veterans who have signed up for the program. More than a year after the state started taking applications, Veterans Care has "somewhere over 100" veterans enrolled in it, Duckworth said.

Initial estimates were that thousands of Illinois veterans might qualify.

"It's not very high," Duckworth said. "That's because of the restrictions."

For example, a veteran cannot enroll in Veterans Care if he or she has access to other health insurance. Members of the Illinois National Guard and Reserve drill one weekend a month, during which time they are covered by federal Veterans Administration health care.

"For those two days of the month, they have health care, and that eliminates their eligibility for Veterans Care,'' Duckworth said.

She also wants to allow some veterans to enroll in Veterans Care, even if they qualify for health care under the Veterans Administration. Veterans would be eligible if they live more than 50 miles or more than an hour's drive away from the nearest VA facility, she said.

"If you live in El Paso, Illinois, you don't have access to VA health care. You are too far away," Duckworth said.

Another problem, she said, is that even if a veteran is eligible for federal health care, he or she may have difficulty getting it on a timely basis. In some cases, veterans wait months or even years to get appointments for VA health services.

"To me, that is the same as not having access," Duckworth said.

She acknowledged that if eligibility rules are changed and more veterans participate, the cost to the state will go up. Veterans Care is funded with a combination of state money and proceeds from a special state lottery game. Still, Duckworth said, the program will maintain income requirements and other rules that will keep Veterans Care focused on those who really need it.

"The people most in need of it are largely going to be veterans from rural areas where there's no VA facility," Duckworth said.

State Rep. Linda Chapa La Via, D-Aurora, a military veteran, said she is "pretty excited" about the proposed changes and thinks the state can afford a higher enrollment in the program.

"I am hoping to pay for this through (the lottery game)," Chapa La Via said. "I don't think this is going to open up the floodgate, but it is going to cost more."

State officials are still working on the eligibility changes Duckworth hopes to have in place early next year.

Duckworth spoke Friday at luncheon in Springfield sponsored by the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs and the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527 or doug.finke@sj-r.com.

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