Michigan
and the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

• General:  The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers a wide variety of programs and services for the nation’s 24.3 million veterans.  In 2006, about 5.3 million people were treated in VA health care facilities, 3.6 million veterans and survivors received VA disability compensation or pensions, nearly 600,000 used GI Bill education benefits and more than 2.4 million owned homes purchased with GI Bill home loan benefits originally valued at $236 billion.  More than 100,000 veterans and family members were buried in VA’s national cemeteries and nearly 360,000 headstones and markers were provided for veterans’ graves worldwide.

VA spent more than $1.6 billion in Michigan in 2006 to care for more than 836,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 85,686 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Michigan.  VA provided 9,701 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 35,979 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $1 billion.  Michigan veterans held more than 44,000 VA life insurance policies worth more than $471 million.  In 2006, 2,747 were interred at Great Lakes and Ft. Custer national cemeteries.

• Health Care:  One of the most visible of all VA benefits is health care.  VA has 153 hospitals, 895 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, 209 Vet Centers, 135 nursing homes, 47 residential rehabilitation treatment programs and 92 comprehensive home care programs.  To improve patients’ ability to access care, VA has changed from a hospital-based system to a primarily outpatient-focused system over the past decade.  Veterans will make 55 million outpatient visits to VA health care facilities this year.

In Michigan, VA operates major medical centers at Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Detroit, Saginaw and Iron Mountain.  In fiscal year 2006, VA facilities in Michigan had 12,521 inpatient admissions and provided more than 1,240,000 outpatient visits.  Ambulatory care clinics are located in each of those sites.  Sixteen community-based outpatient clinics operate in Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac, Gaylord, Yale, Muskegon, Oscoda, Lansing, Traverse City, Jackson, Marquette, Sault St. Marie, Hancock, Menominee, Ironwood and Grand Rapids.  The medical center at Iron Mountain is located on the Wisconsin and Michigan border in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and is the second largest provider of health care in the area.  Michigan VA has medical school affiliations with the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, as well as numerous dental, nursing and allied health schools.

• Post-Conflict Care:  VA has launched special efforts to provide a "seamless transition" for those returning from service in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF).  Each VA medical facility and benefits regional office has a point of contact to coordinate activities locally to help meet the needs of these returning combat service members and veterans.  In addition, VA increased the staffing of benefits counselors at key military hospitals where severely wounded service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are frequently sent.  Once home, recent Iraq and Afghan veterans have ready access to VA health care, which is free of charge for two years following separation for any health problem possibly related to wartime service.  Some 205,000 veterans from the Global War on Terror have sought VA health care since returning stateside, about one-third of the total number of men and women leaving military service.

In Michigan, more than 5,500 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terror sought VA health care in 2006.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Dearborn, Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Escanaba, in the Upper Peninsula.  These community-based Vet Centers serve as an important resource for veterans who, once home, often seek out fellow veterans for advice or help transitioning back to civilian life.

• Geriatric Care:  Long-term care is a critical issue for America’s veterans.  Approximately 39 percent of living veterans are at least 65 years, compared with 12 percent of the general population.  The challenge to care for these 9.5 million men and women is met through a spectrum of home and community-based programs such as home-based primary care, homemaker and home health aide services, home respite and hospice and adult day care health.  VA also provides home and domiciliary care for veterans who can no longer be safely maintained in non-institutional settings.  Additionally, VA conducts nationwide research on the causes and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and funds 21 geriatric research, education and clinical centers, each focusing on a major geriatric problem.

In Michigan, nearly 70,000 veterans aged 65 or older received medical care from VA last year.  Medical centers at Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Detroit, Iron Mountain and Saginaw have nursing homes and provide a wide range of geriatric care, including home-based primary care, community adult day health care, home health aides, community nursing home skilled nursing care, geriatric evaluation and management.  Additionally, the Ann Arbor medical center runs a geriatric research, education and clinical center.

• Research:  To provide the highest quality of health care to the nation’s veterans, VA sponsors a world-renowned research and development program that addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing medical science today, such as aging, vision loss, women’s health, Gulf War illnesses, diabetes, bioterrorism and hepatitis. VA researchers led the way in developing the cardiac pacemaker, the CT scan, magnetic source imaging and improving artificial limbs.  More recently, injuries sustained by armed forces engaged in current deployments have further increased the long-standing emphasis on VA research on limb loss; prosthetics and tissue replacement; traumatic brain injury; spinal cord injury; and mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder.  The quality of the research and relevance to the veteran population remain the determining factors in deciding what studies to fund.

Ann Arbor and Detroit medical centers have extensive research programs covering most medical specialties, including cardiology, endocrinology, geriatrics, oncology, pulmonary and psychiatry.  Ann Arbor received nearly $8.4 million in VA funding in 2006.  Funds covered medical research, health service research and development, rehabilitation research and cooperative research.  Detroit received more than $3.5 million in VA research funding.

• Disabilities and Pensions:  Not all military service related issues end when people are discharged from active duty.  About 2.7 million veterans receive monthly VA disability compensation for medical conditions related to their service in uniform.  VA pensions go to about 330,000 wartime veterans with limited means.  Family members of about 527,000 veterans qualify for monthly VA payments as the survivors of disabled veterans or pension recipients.

VA's Detroit Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Michigan who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Detroit Regional Office processed 12,180 disability compensation claims, including 3,604 veterans applying for the first time and 8,576 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 2,200 Michigan veterans participated in VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program in 2006.

• Homeless:  Less than one-quarter of all homeless adults are veterans, and many more veterans who live in poverty are at risk of becoming homeless.  VA is the only federal agency that provides substantial hands-on assistance directly to the homeless.  It has the largest network of homeless assistance programs in the country.  Nearly 16,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds are available for homeless veterans throughout the country.  VA aggressively reaches out to veterans on the street, conducts clinical assessments, offers needed medical treatment, and provides long-term shelters and job training.  More than $265 million is dedicated to specialized homeless programs to assist homeless veterans, including grants and per diem payments to more than 400 public and non-profit groups.

VA homeless programs in Michigan are based in Ann Arbor, Detroit and Battle Creek.  Ann Arbor and Battle Creek have Compensated Work Therapy programs, which train, house and find employment for homeless veterans.  Detroit has a Healthcare for Homeless Vets program.  Additionally, non-profit organizations were awarded VA grants and per diem payments to establish transitional housing and job training for homeless veterans in Detroit, Battle Creek, Whitmore Lake, Ann Arbor and Lansing, Mich.  VA has sponsored stand downs in Detroit to provide services, health care, clothing and food for more than a thousand homeless men, women and children.

• Memorial Affairs:  Most men and women who have been in the military are eligible for burial in a national cemetery, as are their dependent children and usually their spouses.  VA manages the country’s network of national cemeteries with more than 2.9 million gravesites at 125 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in 33 soldier’s lots and monument sites.  In 2007, more than 100,000 veterans and dependents were buried in VA's national cemeteries.  Additionally, VA provided more than 359,000 headstones and markers and 423,000 Presidential Memorial Certificates to the loved ones of deceased veterans.  VA-assisted state veterans cemeteries provided more than 23,000 interments.

VA has two national cemeteries in Michigan.  Ft. Custer National Cemetery, in Augusta, had 1,055 burials in 2006 and the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Oakland County, north of Detroit, had 1,692.  Michigan operates a state veterans cemetery at Grand Rapids.  VA provided 11,464 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Michigan and sent 16,888 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Michigan survivors of veterans.