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Family talks of need for caregiver benefits

A North Carolina family whose lives were forever changed by an October 2005 roadside bomb explosion in Iraq are being held up by Senate Democrats as a prime example of why the government needs to improve benefits — not just for disabled veterans, but also for the families who provide them around-the-clock care.

Ed Edmundson, the father of retired Army Spc. Eric Edmundson, said he sold his business, and cashed in his savings and retired pay so that he and his wife could move in with Eric and Eric’s wife and child to help. But financial circumstances — which stem partly from the fact that Ed Edmundson and his wife, Denise, have no health insurance — may force him back to work.

Ed is recovering from pneumonia, with his medical bills being partly paid by the Wounded Warrior project. Denise recently broke an ankle, leaving the family with new bills.

“My wife and I are fearful of what this is going to mean to Eric and his and family in the future,” Ed Edmondson said at a Tuesday news conference organized by Senate Democrats to call attention to a bill that would provide health care benefits, a small living stipend and other benefits to family caregivers. The bill is being blocked from consideration by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who objects mostly to its cost.

Coburn said Monday that some existing programs would help people like Eric Edmundson by providing up to $2,600 a month in additional pay, called aid and attendance benefits, that would help cover the cost of assistance to help him carry out daily activities without having to be institutionalized.

The current program does not include health care benefits, mental health counseling, training in minor medical procedures for a family member, and respite care to give the family caregiver a break, all of which are provisions of the delayed bill, S 1963.

The Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act would not provide health care for the entire extended family. Rather, it would allow one family member to be trained as a caregiver and qualify for a living stipend expected to be about $2,300 a month; that family member would receive health care and other benefits.

Ed Edmundson said he knows only one person could receive benefits, and said it is possible that either he or his wife would get a job that included health benefits if the caregiver law were enacted.

The Edmundsons’ appearance at the Tuesday news conference helped call attention to the bill but did not change Coburn’s mind about holding it up. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate majority leader, said if Coburn doesn’t allow the bill to be brought up for consideration without a fight over funding, it is unclear when the Senate would get to the measure because debate is expected to start next week on the larger national health care reform initiative.

Ed Edmundson said the IED attack on his son “ended Eric’s life as he knew it.” The soldier received severe shrapnel wounds, including broken bones and a brain injury resulting from a lack of oxygen to his brain after he had a heart attack, his father said.

“My son, as well as thousands of other injured, cannot sacrifice any more,” Ed Edmundson said. “My wife and I, as caregivers, cannot sacrifice any more.”

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said the Edmundsons are an example of the kind of family the caregiver bill is designed to help.

“If the story of this father and son isn’t enough to make you think something should be done, I don’t know what could,” Reed said.