VA Secretary Backs New Veterans Home for Northwestern North Dakota
Steve Hallstrom
Special to The Farmer
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins has thrown his support behind plans to build a new veterans home in Northwestern North Dakota, telling lawmakers during a Senate hearing that the need crosses party lines and will only grow as the nation’s veteran population ages.
“I think it’s a bipartisan issue,” Collins said. “Our aging population is going to need this.”
The statement came as North Dakota Senator John Hoeven told the committee that the state has launched a study and needs assessment to determine the scope and location of such a facility. Hoeven noted that currently only 20 percent of nursing homes in North Dakota accept VA reimbursements, a figure that illustrates the limited options available to veterans who need long-term care.
North Dakota currently has just one state-run veterans’ home - in Lisbon, in the southeastern corner of the state. The North Dakota Veterans Home has been caring for the state’s veterans and their spouses since 1893, and according to its own website, offers 112 basic care beds and 38 skilled nursing beds. For veterans living in the state’s vast western regions - including Williston, Minot, Dickinson, and the Bakken oil patch communities of McKenzie County - the drive to Lisbon can exceed 300 miles.
North Dakota is among a small group of states with fewer than 50,000 veteran residents, according to the VA’s database, but the veterans who do live here are spread across one of the largest and most geographically isolated landscapes in the country. Distance from services is not an inconvenience, as much as it is a barrier to care.
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