US News

Senate bill to fix broken VA health care system to cost $50B a year

WASHINGTON — The cost of caring for veterans who aren’t getting sufficient care from the VA could more than double under legislation that cruised through the Senate last week in a bipartisan vote, according to an analysis released Monday.

The feds already spend about $44 billion a year caring for vets — though a recent audit showed 57,000 were waiting at least three months for appointments.

Once fully phased in over the next few years, added services would boost costs by $50 billion a year, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis.

Contributing to the price tag, many more vets would likely sign up for care, while others “would choose to enroll because of the improvement in access” when the VA figures out how to properly monitor veterans’ appointments, the CBO says.

Lawmakers are vowing to find ways to pay for some of the new costs — some of which will likely come down in House negotiations.