A couple months back I noted the increase in VA travel pay rates:
VA Watchdog.org was pointing out that the VA has upgraded the travel compensation pay for disabled veterans who qualify. Unfortunately the deductible is going up as well per law, so if you're 54 miles or closer according to the VA there is still no compensation even for those who otherwise qualify for travel compensation.
I made a quick 'n dirty excel chart showing the old versus new rates and compared for gas costs (assuming $3 per gallon and a car averaging 30mpg).
One important thing to point out here is that the mileage for gas costs is based on actual miles whereas the mileage assigned by the VA is often under actual mileage. For example, many people here in Champaign have been assigned a VA mileage of 66 miles in spite of the shortest round trip distance from the closest Champaign exit to the Danville VA hospital being 73 miles.
Unfortunately this leaves many disabled veterans in the Champaign area still paying more to get to their required hospital visits than they're compensated for. The VA does not typically reimburse veterans for health care treatment outside of the VA system unless there is a needed service that is not available at the VA hospital.
Unfortunately that gas price estimate is no longer quite valid, even though it seemed reasonable at the time. Only a few months back... oof!
Seeing gas stations locally hitting over 4 bucks a gallon, and noting the VA appointment I have this week... I figure that graphic deserves an update assuming $4 per gallon instead:
At least we're not stuck at the old rates.
Still, it has me leaning more and more towards McCain's idea of allowing veterans to get more of their basic care at hospitals/clinics of their choice instead of forcing them to make these absurd round trips (roughly an hour and half total for me), burning through a resource we are otherwise attempting to cut back usage on, and using up the time/energy/funding resources of a system that is generally overwhelmed.
I'd still want to keep the VA hospitals themselves in charge of more specialized care for veterans, and still allow the option of getting basic care at the VA hospitals if the veteran prefers it, as McCain's stated plan also does.
It just makes sense to me. The hysterical criticisms of it, do not.
