The president’s task force succinctly identified the problem veterans have when trying to get health care: Between 1996 and 2003, new rules increased the number of veterans in the VA system from 2.9 million to 6.8 million. The health care system had trouble before this increase; since then it has been forced to delay or deny care to hundreds of thousands of veterans. President Bush was right to appoint a committee to look for solutions to this crisis in 2001; its conclusions released earlier this month test Congress’ willingness to make substantial changes to a popular but, for veterans, frustrating system.

Even if the VA were operating at maximum efficiency, concludes the task force, headed by Dr. Gail Wilensky and former Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt, “It would be unable to meet its obligations to enrolled veterans with its current levels of funding.” The increase in the number of veterans seeking care – a reflection of the inadequacy of public and private health coverage in the nation – has resulted in far fewer dollars per VA patient even as funding for the agency has risen 7 percent a year. The task force’s recommendation that Congress and the administration provide full funding to meet the demand for all but better-off veterans who need care for ailments unrelated to their service would mean substantial increases in funding, increases of the sort Congress has yet to fully consider.

It has, however, considered a sensible bill that would provide prescription-drug care only to veterans. Currently, a veteran seeking the VA’s excellent drug coverage ($7 copay for a 30-day supply of most drugs) must have an introductory appointment with a VA physician, even if the patient already has seen his own doctor. The VA visit can take months and, of course, means that other veterans aren’t getting medical attention. S. 1153, sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Sen. Christopher Bond, chairman of Appropriations subcommittee on veterans, would allow veterans who want only prescriptions through the VA to obtain them at cost, $13 for a month’s supply. Sen. Susan Collins is one of four co-sponsors of this excellent idea, which, according to the National Journal, the VA inspector general says will save $1 billion a year.

The larger challenge of providing needed care to all veterans remains. The report from the task force, while praising the VA and Defense for their current cooperation, recommends creating a seamless health care system within the military that begins when a person enters the armed services and remains, with comprehensive services, throughout that person’s life. But, and it is this point that has gotten veterans’ attention, “the apparent mismatch in VA between demand for access and available funding is too large to be solved by collaboration alone.”

One proposed solution is to take veterans’ health care out of discretionary spending and make it mandatory, based on a per-veteran formula, much like Medicare and Medicaid. A second option in the report would create an independent panel to determine how much money VA health care needed each year. Both are difficult because they would result in considerably higher cost. But given the need for far more care than is being offered now, Congress should support a full-funding option – the independent-panel idea would require more trust among veterans, so the formula proposal, though less flexible, may be the better choice. Either way, the report shows that veterans have been right about this issue for years, and now it is time for Congress to act.