{"id":38033,"date":"2025-03-13T15:48:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T21:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=38033"},"modified":"2025-03-14T07:41:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T13:41:58","slug":"updates-to-veterans-home-eligibility-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=38033","title":{"rendered":"Updates to veterans\u2019 home eligibility considered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony March 13 on a bill that would update eligibility for admission to Nebraska veterans\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Dan Lonowski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Currently, among other qualifications, an individual must be at least 50 years old and \u201cdependent on public charities\u201d or in need of care available only at a state institution in order to be eligible to reside in a veterans\u2019 home.<\/p>\n

LB419, sponsored by Sen. Dan Lonowski of Hastings, would remove those requirements. It also would:
\n\u2022 changes the term \u201cdomiciliary and nursing home care and subsistence\u201d to \u201clong-term care\u201d;
\n\u2022 allow veteran aid payments to be approved by a state service officer in addition to a local or county service officer; and
\n\u2022 provide an exception for the application for funeral expenses from a restriction that no claimant can originate a claim in more than one post at any given time.<\/p>\n

Lonowski said the bill would modernize antiquated language in state law and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nebraska Department of Veterans\u2019 Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill is an important one in helping veterans of Nebraska access their benefits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Department director John Hilgert testified in favor of the proposal. He said the bill includes important updates to clarify who is eligible for care in the state\u2019s veterans\u2019 homes, but might not result in more veterans being served in that capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big [determining factor] isn\u2019t beds and sheets, it\u2019s employees \u2026 that\u2019s what we need most of all, frankly,\u201d Hilgert said. \u201cWe have capacity but we cannot admit someone that we cannot care for.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to LB419 and the committee took no immediate action on the proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony March 13 on a bill that would update eligibility for admission to Nebraska veterans\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[307],"class_list":["post-38033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-dan-lonowski"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/UpdateBlogPhoto-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38033"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38044,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38033\/revisions\/38044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}