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H.R. 3230, Veteran Access to Care Act of 2014 1 (June 17, 2014)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo1759 and id is 1 raw text is: June 17, 2014 Honorable Jeff Miller Chairman Committee on Veterans' Affairs U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has prepared a preliminary analysis of sections 2 and 3 of the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3230, the Veteran Access to Care Act of 2014, as posted on the House Rules Committee's website on June 16, 2014 (referred to hereinafter as the House bill). For two years after the date of enactment, the House bill would substantially expand the current authority of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide medical services to veterans through agreements with non-VA health care providers, and would require VA to use that authority to ensure that all eligible veterans receive requested health care in a timely fashion. The effects of providing such broad new authority to VA are highly uncertain, and CBO has been able to make only a preliminary and partial assessment of the legislation. Based on that preliminary assessment, CBO estimates that implementing sections 2 and 3 of the House bill for that two-year period would have a net cost of about $44 billion over the 2014-2019 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts. That net amount comprises increased costs of about $51 billion for VA, less a reduction of $7 billion in federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid. Because funding for the VA's health care program is discretionary-that is, subject to the annual appropriation process-almost all of the added costs would be discretionary. But to cover some of the costs of the bill, section 3 would allow the use of funds that have already been appropriated but would 1. Most nondefense discretionary appropriations are subject to a statutory cap, which is currently set at $492 billion for 2015 and estimated to remain at that level for 2016.

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