Senate Veterans Affairs Committee approved a measure to improve health care for female veterans
27 06 08 - 14:10
The News tribune.com reports - Female veterans win a vote
Murray legislation seeks improved health care from federal government
Posted online at 6:07 p.m. Thursday WASHINGTON – The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee approved a measure Thursday to improve health care for female veterans, with the bill's sponsor, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., calling it a first step toward ensuring that their needs are met.
"Planning for the wave of new women veterans is going to be a difficult and complex task, but this bill gets us on the right track," Murray told the committee.
The bill, among other things, would authorize programs to improve care for victims of military sexual trauma, require new studies of the problems women face when seeking treatment at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and expand staff and training for those who serve woman at the VA.
The legislation also requires the VA, along with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, to study the health consequences for women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for the VA to create a pilot program providing child care services to female veterans who require intensive outpatient care.
The News Tribune published a Page One story about the growing needs of female vets on May 19.
The number of female veterans seeking medical services from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to double within the next five years. There are currently about 1.7 million female veterans, or 7 percent of the nation’s nearly 25 million veterans. More than 250,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Over the past 10 years, the number of female veterans treated at the VA's hospital at American Lake in Lakewood has risen 80 percent, while the number treated at the Seattle VA hospital has increased 42 percent.
Female veterans have complained that the VA has a male-dominated atmosphere that can make them uncomfortable and that the VA has been to slow in providing such services as mammograms and pap smears.
"While women are playing an increasing role in our military and sacrificing on our front lines, they make up a small fraction of those receiving care at the VA," Murray said. "We need to ensure that women have equal access to VA health care benefits and services and that the VA health care system is tailored to meet the unique needs of women veterans."
VA officials previously told lawmakers that they already had taken steps to improve women's health care. They opposed many of the provisions in Murray's bill.
Murray's bill was combined with several others into an omnibus bill approved by the committee on a voice vote. Prospects of the bill reaching the Senate floor were uncertain, with the chamber’s legislative calendar already jammed and lawmakers hoping to go home in the early fall to campaign.
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