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Big pay boost sought for badly injured vets

Severely disabled veterans who need virtually full-time assistance carrying out routine tasks such as bathing, dressing and eating would receive up to $1,410 more a month under a bipartisan bill introduced July 30 by members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Under the bill, 100 percent disabled veterans qualifying for the highest rate of special compensation because they need aid and attendance would receive up to $8,642 a month.

The bill, HR 3407, has three other key provisions:

* Some eligibility restrictions on the highest levels of aid and attendance allowances would be relaxed so that veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries would receive payments now limited to those who have lost limbs.

* Medal of Honor recipients would receive $2,000 in monthly special compensation, twice the current rate.

* Veterans with severe burns would be eligible for adaptive vehicle grants, something not currently covered for those with burn injuries.

Three key lawmakers — two Republicans and one Democrat — are sponsoring the bill that they are calling the Severely Injured Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act. The Republicans are Reps. Steve Buyer of Indiana and Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina. Buyer is the senior Republican on the house Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Brown is ranking Republican on that committee’s health panel.

The Democratic co-sponsor is Rep. Michael Michaud of Maine, chairman of the health panel.

The main obstacle to increasing veterans benefits has been finding a way to pay for it. But aides to Buyer said the cost of this proposal is fully covered by extending expiring provisions that ensure Medicare reimburses the Veterans Affairs Department for some medical treatments of nonservice-connected injuries.

“This is fully paid for,” Buyer spokesman Brian Lawrence said.

The big increases come as a result of doubling aid and attendance benefits for catastrophically injured veterans, who would receive either $7,552 a month or $8,642 a month in total disability compensation and special compensation. The payment level depends on the level of assistance needed to carry out daily activities.

Michaud said the bill is a response to testimony from some veterans groups that the needs of severely injured veterans are not being met by current policies.

“That is unacceptable,” he said.

Buyer said some veterans with severe traumatic brain injuries need constant supervision and help, just like veterans who are paralyzed or have lost multiple limbs.

Current policies that deny them higher rates of aid and attendance payments end up pushing veterans with TBI into residential care programs, when they could stay at home if there were enough money to cover the assistance they need, Michaud said.

“Obviously, this would lead to a better quality of life for those who suffer from this life-altering trauma.”

The bill was introduced just as the House of Representatives was leaving town for its traditional August break. No hearings on the proposal have been scheduled.