House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Debates Funding Approaches for Veterans Benefits and Healthcare

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee recently reviewed two bills impacting veteran benefits and healthcare funding. The Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act of 2025 proposes increasing home loan fees for disabled veterans with a rating of 70 percent or less after their first VA home loan use. The collected fees would finance modest hikes in Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) and Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) for surviving spouses and catastrophically disabled veterans. This approach has raised concerns among committee members about placing financial burdens on disabled veterans and potentially restricting benefits based on disability ratings. Conversely, the GUARD Veterans’ Health Care Act offers a bipartisan alternative that allows the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to seek reimbursements from Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D plans for veterans receiving care through the VA. Currently, VA cannot bill these plans, leading to estimated annual duplicative spending over $20 billion, where taxpayers effectively pay twice for veterans' healthcare. The bill enhances VA’s ability to recover payments and enforce reimbursement collection, ensuring funds are reinvested into veterans' healthcare services. The debate highlights contrasting funding approaches: one relying on increased costs to disabled veterans through loan fees, the other targeting private insurance companies to secure reimbursements for care already provided by the VA. The latter aims to reduce inefficiencies and double payments in veterans’ healthcare financing without additional fees on veterans. Lawmakers emphasize the need to direct resources effectively towards improved care delivery at the VA, including provider hiring and medical equipment acquisition. The hearing underscores ongoing challenges in balancing veteran benefits funding, healthcare system sustainability, and fair cost allocations among stakeholders. Veterans service organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion, and Disabled American Veterans have expressed their views on the proposed bills, indicating active veteran community engagement. As these legislative proposals advance, their impact on the VA system, veterans’ benefits, and healthcare financing structures will be critical areas for insurance professionals and policymakers to monitor.