Senate Joint Resolution
No. 16
CHAPTER 68
Relative to veterans’ hospitals.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
June 26, 2008.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SJR 16, Wyland.
Veterans’ hospitals: prescriptions.
This measure would urge the Congress and the President of the United States to require the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to consider the establishment of a specified emergency prescription program, for use in United States Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, that is similar to the program currently used by hospitals administered by the United States Department of Defense.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee:
NO WHEREAS, The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the result of President Lincoln’s call to Congress to act for the protection and care of Civil War veterans, to “care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan”; and
WHEREAS, The VA provides medical care for veterans, many of whom have risked their lives to protect the security of our nation; and
WHEREAS, New challenges, medical emergencies, and exigencies of treatment have created difficulties, previously unseen, with regard to the VA’s ability to provide the best care and treatment for our veterans; and
WHEREAS, One example of these difficulties is the lack of authority for VA hospitals and pharmacies to fill emergency prescriptions for veterans that are written by physicians that are not affiliated with the VA hospital or pharmacy; and
WHEREAS, The United States Department of Defense hospitals and clinics have the authority to fill prescriptions for active-duty military personnel, retirees, and their dependents that are written by a physician that is not affiliated with the military; a practice that has been met with unblemished success; and
WHEREAS, A similar prescription program, with security safeguards, would be considered an ideal method for the delivery of emergency prescriptions issued by physicians that are not affiliated with the VA hospital or pharmacy in order to ensure the health and welfare of VA patients who use the VA as their primary source of treatment, and who must have the medicines when civilian pharmacies are not available or are closed; and
WHEREAS, The establishment of this type of prescription program would, in keeping with the standardization of military functions, fulfill President Lincoln’s oft-quoted statement of caring for our fighting forces and their dependents; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California respectfully urges the President and the Congress of the United States to require the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to consider the establishment of an emergency prescription program for filling prescriptions written by a physician that is not affiliated with a veterans’ hospital or pharmacy, for use in United States Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, that is similar to the program currently used by hospitals administered by the United States Department of Defense; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to the minority leader of each house, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.