All Veterans Could Be Vaccinated At VA Hospitals Under Crist Bill

FLORIDA — U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, announced introduction of the Vaccines for Veterans Act, legislation to allow all veterans to receive the coronavirus vaccine at Veterans Administration facilities.

Currently, only veterans age 75 and older who are enrolled in the VA with a service-connected disability or limited income are eligible. The bill would allow individual VA medical centers to follow state vaccine eligibility guidance and expand access to all veterans.

Crist announced the legislation alongside local veterans who were turned away from receiving a vaccine. Despite being otherwise eligible in their home states, veterans across the country are being turned away by VA facilities due to federal policy that only allows the VA to vaccinate veterans who would normally be eligible for VA health care because of income or a service-connected disability.

Even veterans with a non-service-related disabilities or at high risk of dying if they contract the coronavirus do not qualify under the current policy. In Florida, this excludes many Vietnam veterans.

“With nearly 30,000 COVID-related deaths and Florida seniors struggling to navigate overwhelmed websites for a vaccine reservation, we should be making full use of our facilities and staff who can get shots into arms. And yet, red tape at the federal government means that otherwise-eligible veterans – particularly Vietnam veterans – are being turned away at VA facilities across our state. This makes no sense,” said Crist.

“The Vaccines for Veterans Act would expand eligibility and give local medical directors the flexibility they need to vaccinate as many veterans as possible," he said. "This would increase the number of veterans vaccinated, and free up appointments for more seniors."

As VA facilities participate in the rollout of coronavirus vaccinations for veterans 75 years and older, federal policy has forced VA facilities to turn away veterans seeking the vaccine due to eligibility requirements, Crist said.

In some cases, those turned away are older veterans who have traveled across the state and waited hours in line in hopes of receiving some protection from the virus, he said.

Crist's proposed veterans legislation comes as Floridians age 65 and over continue to struggle to get appointments to receive the coronavirus vaccine.

The state says the delay in vaccinating seniors is due to snowstorms causing a backup in the delivery of vaccines to Florida.

To date, Florida has vaccinated 4,096,985 people including 2,038,204 seniors age 65 and up. That's less than half of the state's senior population of 4.5 million.

In the meantime, after seeing a downward trend, Florida's positivity rate has begun to slowly climb.

After falling to a 5.74 positivity rate on Friday, the lowest since Jan. 30 when the state posted a 5.54 percent positivity rate, the state's overall rate drifted back up to 6.82 percent Monday.

The Florida Department of Health reported that 1,872,923 Floridians have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began with 77,904 of those hospitalized and 30,595 deaths.

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