On September 12, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee approved, by voice vote, the Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012 (S. 3313). The committee held a hearing to examine the legislation on June 27 (see The Source, 6/29/12).
Sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the bill would add fertility counseling and treatment, including assisted reproductive technology, to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) definition of medical services, authorizing the VA to provide these services to severely wounded veterans. The measure also would make spouses or surrogates of severely wounded veterans eligible for the same services through the VA.
The bill would require the VA to collaborate with the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health to conduct research on the long-term reproductive health care needs of veterans; findings would be reported to the Veterans Health Administration.
Under the measure, the VA would be required to expand the capabilities of the women veterans call center to improve outreach and support. The call centers would be required to accept incoming calls from women veterans, assist them with accessing health benefits offered by the VA, and refer them to community resources to obtain services not offered by the VA.
The legislation would extend the VA’s pilot program to provide readjustment counseling to women veterans in retreat settings from two years to four years and would add eleven new locations. Additionally, the bill would create a pilot program to provide child care to veterans seeking readjustment counseling or other mental health services at a VA Vet Center; $1 million would be authorized annually for FY2014 through FY2015 for the new program. VA Vet Centers are community-based facilities, offering counseling, outreach, and referral services in order to help veterans readjust to civilian life. The centers also offer bereavement counseling to surviving parents, children, and spouses of service members who die while on active duty.
During consideration of the measure, the panel adopted the following amendments offered by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), by voice vote:
