LAKE COUNTY — A medical clinic for veterans is planned to open in Lake County in 2010, according to county and federal officials.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake announced Dec. 4 that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to open 31 new outpatient clinics in 16 states. The VA is in the process of selecting a location in Lake County, according to Lake County Veterans Affairs Officer Jim Brown.
“The first thing we had to do was get put on the list, and now we start the process of finding a location,” Brown said.
Currently, veterans of foreign wars who qualify for VA medical benefits must travel out of county for outpatient care, and as far as Santa Rosa and San Francisco for specialty care.
“There is no facility at all in Lake County. We need something here,” Frank Parker, president of the United Veterans Council of Lake County, said.
Parker is one of approximately 8,000 Lake County veterans. Brown said the clinic planned for Lake County will likely offer primary care at first until the VA can assess the needs of the community and add services as needed. He said specialty care, such as surgery or extensive testing, will still require travel.
“A lot of our vets are in their 60s, 70s and 80s, and to have to travel to Santa Rosa or San Francisco is about a 10-hour day trip. Now they can get care locally, and that”s significant,” Brown said.
Brown said the inconvenience of long-distance travel pushed many Lake County veterans with chronic health problems to avoid seeking care until the problem became severe. The establishment of a VA clinic in Lake County will mean more preventative care, according to Brown.
According to a press release from the office of U.S. Representative Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), the new clinics are only part of a bigger picture of increased services for veterans.
“We always have to remember that the services and benefits we have in place for veterans are not what veterans deserve to get, it”s what they have earned,” Thompson said.
The release said Congress increased the VA”s budget by $16 billion since January 2007, the largest increase in the department”s 77-year history. The increase means 15,000 more VA healthcare workers and more than 5,200 new case workers, which is expected to reduce the six-month delay facing nearly 400,000 veterans who are waiting to receive benefits.
Brown said disabled veterans receive free VA care. Single veterans who earn $24,000 or less annually and married veterans with a combined income of $34,000 or less annually can also qualify.
“A lot of people in Lake County are eligible for VA care, either because they make it on the means test ? we have a lot of retired people who are below the income limits ? and we have a good number of disabled vets,” Brown said.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
