Health Security Act

Reform of the nation's health care system to reduce the number of Americans who lack coverage of basic acute health care services could significantly reduce demand for such services in facilities administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). GAO reported in 1992 that if changes were not made in the VA health care system as part of health reform, VA hospitals could lose about 50 percent of their acute hospital workload and 44 percent of their outpatient workload. To assist the Congressional Veterans' Affairs Committees, which will be considering legislation to fundamentally reform the VA health care system and veterans' health benefits, GAO prepared this fact sheet which analyzes the veterans affairs provisions of the administration's proposed Health Security Act.

GAO found that: (1) although many legislative proposals have been introduced to reform the nation's health care system, only the Health Security Act contains specific proposals for restructuring the veterans' health care system; (2) the Health Security Act would authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish managed care plans; (3) the Health Security Act contains several new financing mechanisms to help offset the costs of VA health plans; and (4) several legislative amendments have been approved to provide for the specialized treatment and rehabilitative needs of disabled veterans.