Heard Of A Bill Awaiting Approval - Sced From 10% Up Will Get Dental Benefits?

[bob_abad]

Sort of given a heads up early last week. Is this true, or rumor mill? I still have mine from work, but this would help lots of SCed/homeless vets in dire need of teeth maintenance.

Just curious...Thanks!

[SgtD6970]

Sort of given a heads up early last week. Is this true, or rumor mill? I still have mine from work, but this would help lots of SCed/homeless vets in dire need of teeth maintenance.

Just curious...Thanks!

Here's the article on this:

CALL TO ACTION: BILL WOULD GIVE DENTAL BENEFITS TO ALL DISABLED VETS -- Have your elected Representative

support H.R. 5595 which would give dental coverage to

all vets with at least a 10% service-connected rating.

Veterans with service-connected disabilities would get expanded dental coverage under bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park.

The "Make Our Veterans Smile Act" (House Resolution 5595) was co-introduced by Kirk and fellow Navy Reserve intelligence officer U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-Pa.

Currently, only 100 percent disabled, homeless or prisoner-of-war veterans are eligible for dental benefits. The bill, if signed into law, expands dental coverage to any service-connected disabled veteran, regardless of disability rating starting Jan. 1, 2009.

"We need to ensure that those who wore the uniform, risked their lives and sacrificed so much are appropriately cared for," Kirk said Thursday. "We won a great victory for area veterans when we saved the North Chicago VA Hospital from closing. But the commitment the government makes to help care for disabled veterans is incomplete without addressing their dental needs."

According to the Veterans Administration, 258,000 veterans currently are eligible for dental benefits. More than 2.5 million additional disabled veterans would receive coverage under the Kirk-Carney bill.

In Illinois, coverage would expand from nearly 5,000 veterans to more than 60,000 veterans, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Legislation is on Thomas, here... http://thomas.loc.gov/

Type in H.R. 5595.

Legislation printed below:

-------------------------

Make Our Veterans Smile Act of 2008 (Introduced in House)

HR 5595 IH

110th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. R. 5595

To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide dental care to veterans with service-connected disabilities, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 12, 2008

Mr. CARNEY (for himself and Mr. KIRK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

A BILL

To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide dental care to veterans with service-connected disabilities, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Make Our Veterans Smile Act of 2008'.

SEC. 2. PROVISION OF DENTAL CARE BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO VETERANS WITH SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITIES.

(a) Provision of Care- Section 1712(a)(1)(G) of title 38, United States Code, is amended by striking `rated as total'.

(;) Authority To Provide Care by Entering Into Contracts- Section 1703(a)(7) of such title is amended by striking `section 1712(a)(1)(F)' and inserting `section 1712(a)(1)'.

© Effective Date- The amendments made by subsections (a) and (:) shall apply with respect to outpatient dental services and treatment, and related dental appliances, furnished on or after January 1, 2009.

Since this may be great for a lot of Veterans, I much would rather have a increase in the amount given to all Veterans since there are many Vets like me who have no teeth. Mine were all pulled before treatment for cancer. So just give me another 10-25% pay increase. Sgt D

[Testvet]

given how hard it is to get dental care now at 100% I seriously doubt this bill ever gets approved, just my two cents

[Jayg]

given how hard it is to get dental care now at 100% I seriously doubt this bill ever gets approved, just my two cents

If they made provision for providing dental care for sc vets within certain income limits, with copay as they do other services, it might actually fly. That would also help those who need it most.

As that's written, I wouldn't give it the proverbial snowball's chance of passing. ;)

[free_spirit_etc]

Yeah. I imagine it will just kind of die...one of those Sine Die kind of things, where they don't vote on it and don't push it - so whoever wanted it introduced is happy with the person that introduced it - but it just lays idle - and nothing ever happens...

It MAY pass - but I wouldn't count on it. I think they are already having to pay too much to private dentists because they have to send active duty people to them because they don't have enough dentists. Or that is what I heard. So it would not be likely that they start providing dental care to vets with 10% SC.

I do think they should provide care based on income - or to higher levels of SC.

But again, the law already says you get ONE TIME dental care upon discharge - where they fix whatever is wrong ONE TIME. My husband applied for that when he retired. The RO and the BVA bounced that back and forth between them - debating whether he was entitled to SC PAY for his teeth - and he kept saying he just wanted his ONE TIME TREATMENT - but they kept trying to decide about COMPENSATION.

He never DID get approval for the TREATMENT from 1998 until he died in 2007. But they DID cause him to probably lose years of lung cancer SC, if it is granted. BEcause the ONLY thing he was actively applying for was his lung cancer. He got a letter he was denied and telling him he could appeal. Then he got a letter telling him his appeal was sent to the BVA. He THOUGHT it was his lung cancer claim, since that is the only thing he had been pursuing.

SO while he was waiting to the BVA to hear his claim - they were closing it. We found out later it had been closed - when he called for an update on the claim. (well - actually - when he called for an update - they TOLD him it was still open - and that they would send the new evidence to the BVA - But they told the Senator it was closed.)

And they NEVER responded to his written requests to find out if it was open or closed - and WHY it was closed, if it was. They IGNORED his written requests.

But they later told the Senator that it was NOT his lung cancer claim that was sent to the BVA - it was the dental claim - that the RO had sent back to the BVA.

So he most likely lost from 2001 (filing date for lung cancer) to 2006 (when the VA reopened it) because of the dental claim boomerang the RO and BVA played.

If he gets SC - I will at least try to go back to an earlier date. Hopefully they can consider the time he called and they told him his case was still open - and INFORMAL claim to reopen.

He had NO reason to try to reopen it in writing - since they told him it WAS open.

And he did follow up with a letter - informing them of his intent to send more evidence.

Free

given how hard it is to get dental care now at 100% I seriously doubt this bill ever gets approved, just my two cents

[Pete53]

If it does pass what kind of care will all these Veterans be getting. Right now my VA Dental in Dallas can only clean teeth 1 time a year and they have all of 2 people doing that during work hours. The Denatl Hygienist said he see's about 5 to 8 patients a day.

I actually hope it does pass cause if they can't take care of them maybe we can go to other Dentists in our neighborhood?

[john999]

The VAMC in Tampa, Florida is the busiest in the nation. They have a tiny dental clinic. That VAMC serves a few hundred thousand vets. I get some dental there and I cannot even get an appoint out 6 months to get my teeth cleaned. They won't do an implant for me. If I want one I have to pay a private dentist. I don't think they will expand this program at all. They should expand it because there is clear evidence that dental health affects overall health. If a patient has DMII or heart disease they need to have good dental health. The VA would incur huge costs if they treated every vet at 10% and above for dental. I bet they would be pulling alot of teeth since that is their motto "If it looks expensive, pull it". Dentures are cheaper than root canals and crowns. I think not giving vets dental is a sin, but these cheap smucks in congress get theirs done for free. I bet every congressman's whole family have the best and whitest teeth in town. Half the vets I see at my VAMC are missing teeth.