VA Health chief says lean increase is enough.(Veterans Health)

Publication: Medicine & Health

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Thomson Financial Inc.

The Bush administration is requesting $30.7 billion for the Veterans Health Administration in fiscal year 2006. That's a 2.5 percent increase in nominal terms, said Rita Reed, deputy assistant secretary for budget at the Department of Veterans Affairs, at a Feb. 7 briefing.

However, in real terms the increase is barely enough to stay ahead of consumer inflation, which the Congressional Budget Office projects will be 2.4 percent in calendar year 2005 and 1.9 percent in calendar 2006. And the increase is only a third of health- care inflation, which was 7.5 percent in the first six months of 2004, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change.

Nevertheless, Steve Perlin, the VA's acting under secretary for health, said...

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