 All right. Good afternoon everybody. How's everybody doing? It's time to wake this room up Okay, so everybody here. I'm sure is aware of the law that created the caregiver program It's passed back in 2010 the caregiver program Gives supports and services to caregivers of post 9-11 veterans those things include Education training some respite services so they can take a break from their caregiving duties They get a modest stipend Because they are forgoing their ability to work and make a living and it also provides Healthcare coverage through champ VA if they don't already have one But here's the problem with the bill Here's the problem with the law. It's not equitable. It restricts choice and And it costs more So today many caregivers of severely disabled veterans are aging and Their ability to continue in their role is declining Many of you in this room are intimately familiar with that And all the most caregivers continue to undertake this role selflessly willingly They don't have access to VA's comprehensive caregiver support program That was established by that law back in 2010 Now there is a cost to providing access to VA's caregiver program. That's the cost right there. Well It's actually half that now believe it or not. It's about eighteen thousand dollars State veterans homes about fifty one thousand dollars a year community nursing home hundred thousand dollars a year VA nursing home because it's usually resides in a hospital in a VA hospital Quite a bit more Now, let me say this again, right? You see these numbers up here It costs less to keep a veteran at home with their caregiver and given that caregiver their support and services Then it is for that veteran to be in a nursing home. Imagine that it costs less better for the veteran But this is what we hear from Congress today. Oh, it costs too much money. I'll tell you something else beyond these numbers caregivers actually are shown by numerous studies To lessen the overall cost because they take care of their patient because they take care of their veterans the veterans medical Complication goes down The number of times they get admitted in the hospital goes down if they have a family caregiver So not only does the program cost less if you get them in there They drive down the overall cost even further So the bottom line is there is no equal access to VA's caregiver program and that's what this campaign is for This is a legislative priority for the DAV. It is also a priority for all these other organizations VFW PVA American Legion IVA Because of this legislative priority we create a way a website for this campaign and We've had some legislation introduced This is the website and that's a web address up there at the top the bottom here are some resources For caregivers if they go to the site and they need some more information about anything from local services to federal services and sports Those are a couple of links that they can click on But for our purposes here in midwinter You can find the current legislation to expand the eligibility for VA's caregiver program here As well as an issue brief now this issue brief obviously accessible to anybody But in this way anybody can learn more about this issue This little link up here in a corner. You wouldn't know that it's a link because it's a picture, but it is a link I think you will find this interesting if you click on this link You're gonna get this It's a caregiver of veterans a picture by the numbers Now the information on this is based on a report by the RAND Corporation the same RAND Corporation that Peter mentioned That did the independent assessment on VA the RAND Corporation surveyed caregivers of veterans and this is what they found there's a major difference between caregivers of pre-911 veterans and caregivers of post-911 veterans This is the medical conditions but more interestingly They found that caregivers of pre-911 veterans actually support more when it comes to basic Self-care tasks, you know go in the bathroom getting out of bed They do more of that than pre-911 caregivers of pre-911 veterans of post-911 veterans. I'm sorry caregivers of pre-911 veterans also provide more complex tasks grocery shopping cooking cleaning Those things those supports that veterans need to remain independent in their community to stay out of a nursing home They do more of this so now What has happened since we put the website up introduce legislation has been introduced Some of you may remember back in November We actually sent out an alert on these bills and we got a fantastic response from our DAV from our DAV can members We got thousands of emails sent up to the hill and guess what happened a month later the house veterans affairs committee Had a hearing we testified at that hearing we told them about the importance of this program We told them about how the program can be improved and that it should be expanded guess what happened in the Senate Legislation was introduced and in December the Senate VA committee actually passed a bill To expand the program S4 25 Now that bill It's called the veterans homeless programs caregiver services and other improvements act of 2015 It actually contains the provision from s1085 from senator Patty Murray out of Washington That bill would expand the caregiver program to all veterans Over four years. It's a phase in and we understand this because phasing in a program Of this magnitude has to be done quite carefully so that we don't create expectations and then fail to meet them So we're quite comfortable with that But unfortunately The house has not acted on any bill as of yet even though they have three different bills to choose from so What do we do next? This is what I need you to do while you're here in Washington this midwinter You have to keep in mind that the full Senate because the VA Senate VA committee already passed the bill the full Senate actually has to approve it So that bill has to be approved by the full Senate In the house We want the VA committee to do what their Senate committee Senate VA committee did they we want the house VA committee to pass a bill So the Senate full Senate needs to pass a bill in the house the house VA committee needs to pass bill What is this for? so that when they pass a bill Both sides of Congress the house in the Senate can come together and hammer out a deal now We have we have to get the house VA committee to approve a bill We need this if we stand if we are to stand a chance to actually Finally expanding the caregiver program to caregivers of veterans of all eras So in order to do this here's what I need you to do take a look at your talking points Those should have been handed out to you already When you go meet your senators all senators Ask them to pass 425. It's waiting at the desk at the floor of the Senate if you are meeting with a member in the house and Your member is a member of the VA committee the house VA committee. How many here? Richard has one a couple other hands out there You folks are at the tip of the spear for this campaign this midwinter What you do and how you are able to to urge and and influence your member to act Will take this ball that much closer down to a touchdown So that's it for the caregiver campaign everybody understand that Senate has to pass a bill house VA has to pass a bill. I'm not done yet. Hold on hold your applause hold your applause So there's two more little tidbits. This is pending legislation. I can't let you go until I let you know what they've actually done Or what they're waiting for to do for us this second session of Congress HR 35 49 VA billing accountability act You like this This bill would actually allow VA to waive your co-payment If they delay notifying you of that bill I Like that So if VA VA if you owe VA a co-payment and they delay sending you that notice that bill in the mail something like 60 days I think VA Can waive that co-payment Kind of fair I think Jason Simakowski promise act that actually deals with the opioid epidemic everybody here Heard of this issue across country This is right up our alley We have a resolution that falls in line with this bill our resolution talks about reducing dependence and opioid But you have to substitute that with something you can't just drop veterans off You got to provide them alternative therapies and that's what this bill would do The let's move down to the last one because this one is This one is actually very important s 2170 the vets act of 2015. This deals with telemedicine now part of our reform or For ours We actually talk about expanding telehealth right this crosses state lines Unfortunately, the law doesn't allow doctors to practice across state lines even if you're doing telehealth So this bill will help how many veterans here actually go to a facility that's in a separate state 280,000 veterans including those in the audience here who raised their hands have this problem They cannot get telehealth from their VA facility because it's across the state That's what this bill would help do it would allow those qualified clinicians To provide telehealth across state lines now Last one these are enacted bills that Congress actually passed bills that will help our Members and here are some of the some of the provisions So the fence authorization act of 2016 has a provision in there that tells DOD that it must share Exposure information with regards to burn pits and open hazards something we've been looking for for the last several years The other bill the other law the department veterans fairs expiring authorities act of 2015 extends three very important Authorities It would extend nursing home care for service connective veterans, you know if your Priority group one veteran VA actually has to provide your nursing home care. They cannot wiggle their way out of it That authority is extended through December of 2016 The caregiver program is actually reauthorized through fiscal year 2016 and The last one Continuing studies of the effects of age and orange. This is where VA contracts with IOM This actually got extended through December 2016 And that's all I have for you folks a lot shorter than Okay, I'll I'll leave that alone. Thank you next is a Leroy Acosta he's gonna talk about some benefits legislation as well as our Campaign in the benefits arena. Thank you