Despite a growing number of patients and questions about the quality of care, veterans hospitals in Des Moines and Knoxville would get less money next year. Under a proposed federal budget, the V-A’s are due only 90-million dollars, that’s a two-million dollar cut from the current year. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says it could’ve been a lot worse for the whole V-A systemGrassley says Congress restored more than a billion dollars that the President didn’t want to put into the V-As. Grassley says the hospitals will just have to make due with what they are getting.Grassley says another option is the possibility that a spending supplement can be passed for the hospitals next spring. He says it appears Iowa’s third V-A hospital, located in Iowa City, would not face a budget cut but wouldn’t see an increase either.Senator Tom Harkin has sent a letter to the V-A secretary saying the proposed budget cuts are unacceptable.
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