Michaud announces veterans health bill

BANGOR – U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud unveiled legislation Wednesday to improve health care access and affordability for rural veterans nationwide, and particularly the 16 percent of Mainers who have served in the military.

Soldiers serving in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have heightened awareness of the issue, Michaud told a small group of veterans at the Maine Veterans Home on Hogan Road.

Military personnel returning from Afghanistan and Iraq increasingly are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder but are unable to obtain proper treatment.

According to Michaud, 44 percent of recent U.S. military recruits came from rural areas. Aroostook County patients, for example, may spend four days traveling to Togus VA Medical Center near Augusta or facilities in Massachusetts for care, he said. Despite climbing gasoline prices, they are reimbursed 11 cents per mile.

“That’s unconscionable and uncalled for,” Michaud said in a prepared statement. “They have the right, and Congress has the responsibility, to provide quality health care and easy access to it.”

The Rural Veterans Health Care Act of 2006 will require the Department of Veterans Affairs to collaborate with employers, state agencies, health centers and the National Guard to reach out to rural communities nationwide. Mobile clinics will assist veterans in locations where major centers aren’t available.

Michaud, ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Health for the Veterans Affairs Committee, will introduce the bill in the House next week.

Funding estimates aren’t available. But Michaud, the bill’s chief sponsor, said the legislation will save money in the long run by providing veterans with timely access to health care before their medical conditions become worse.

“It’s a matter of priorities,” he said. “It’s about where we want to put our money. It’s time to live up to this commitment.”

Michaud drafted the bill after the Institute of Medicine, an independent health adviser to the federal government, reported the need for rural clinics in 2005. The VA committee also held two hearings nationwide, including one in Maine last August, and listened to testimony from rural veterans.

Michaud and other federal legislators have made efforts to improve health care for veterans, he said, but this is the first comprehensive plan that addresses homeless and American Indian veterans. The legislation also will advance training for health care professionals, medical research and development of technological infrastructures, including telemedicine services.

Peter Miesburger, 70, of Caribou, a retired Air Force master sergeant, served in Korea during the Cold War era and attended the announcement. Miesburger was one of 6,000 veterans who took advantage of services at the outpatient clinic in Caribou last year. He often travels 500 miles round trip to Augusta for services not offered in Caribou.

Residents in Washington and Aroostook counties receive inadequate care because of the expense, he said.

“It’s such a drawn-out process to get treatment,” Miesburger said Wednesday. “Once you get into that health care system, you can’t get better service. But getting there is how vets get aggravated, disgusted and upset.”