Story Published:
Nov 25, 2009 at 7:23 PM EST
Story Updated:
Nov 25, 2009 at 7:23 PM EST
For the past few weeks veterans and health care workers at the Soldiers' Home have rallied in Western Mass. and Boston, fighting for Gov. Deval Patrick to restore funding. All were disappointed to learn the governor would not be sending funds their way.
"Closing this place would just be a sin on someone's soul," veteran Paul Camrye said.
The soul belongs to Patrick. Tuesday night he vetoed a bill to restore $500,000 to the Holyoke Soldiers' Home. Three weeks ago the governor cut $900,000 from the Soldiers' Home budget, which effectively eliminated outpatient medical services as of Dec.1.
The $500,000 proposed by legislators would have kept most outpatient services intact, but now, they will be forced to shut down next Tuesday.
"Well I think it's horrible to cut anything for the veterans. It's crazy. All of the good people we have here, they are going to have veterans all across the country up in arms about this," veteran John Albright said.
The outpatient services, which include dentistry, urology and eye care, are used by 2,500 veterans a year. Those veterans will now have to go elsewhere. Veterans Administration Medical Center in Northampton is prepared to serve many of them. The VA does have an outpatient services, and not everyone will be eligible for VA Care.
Soldiers' Home laboratory supervisor Susan Porter said, "We have many veterans, more by the day who have no insurance at all. Of our veterans that do have insurance if they don't have supplemental to medicare then they incur 20 percent payment plus co-pay on the outside. Here they would pay nothing."
Veterans and Soldiers' Home health care workers said even though the service is scheduled to close next week, the fight is not over yet.
"We are going to mobilize a phone campaign to the legislators to go ahead with the override which they have the ability to do so we are pushing for an override and we are going to mobilize statewide for a march on Boston and we hope to take thousands of people to Boston to protest these cuts, to protest the veto," Porter said.
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Thursday, Nov 26 at 5:54 PM CAMMMO wrote ...
Help educate young people considering service in the U.S. military about the vast disparity between the mirage of soldier support in America, and the reality of mere lip service and private profit war mongering, where troops are simply the fodder and the fuel necessary to keep the beast lurking.