Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7158, the Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act.

H.R. 7158 would give VA the authority to grant payments to non-VA entities for veterans who require long-term care in medical foster homes. A medical foster home is a private home, not an institutional facility, where trained caregivers provide wraparound care and service to patients.

VA inspects and approves medical foster homes and enrolls veterans in the VA Home Healthcare Program. But under current law, VA is not authorized to pay for veterans' medical foster home care. Veterans must cover the bill themselves, even if they would otherwise be eligible for a VA-run nursing home facility.

Now, medical foster homes are a more cost-effective alternative to nursing home care. They typically cost between $1,500 and $3,000 a month, compared to a typical $7,000-a-month cost in a nursing home.

Allowing veterans to age with dignity and being comfortable is something that I care deeply about, and this bill is a critical step towards helping us to do just that.

However, this is another bill that CBO gave a large mandatory score to because of the toxic exposure fund. We were able to fully offset this score, but we won't be able to do that for every piece of legislation. Our offsets are quickly running out, and we have to solve the scoring problem before the work of our committee grinds to a complete halt.

This bill is supported by the VA and numerous VSOs, and I thank Congressman Higgins for his tireless work on it.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to support H.R. 7158, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with the chairman as we move forward to try to cure that problem that we were just talking about.

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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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