Congress has passed an appropriations bill to fund increased medical care for military veterans–particularly women–a burgeoning contingent of the vet population. The fiscal year 2017 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, passed May 19 by the Senate, proposes to increase VA appropriations to $74.9 billion–an increase of $3.2 billion over last year.

The bill also contains language that presses the VA to improve health care for female veterans by considering the launch of a mobile health care pilot program. These provisions come a year after Congress commissioned a study on the barriers women veterans face in the VA health care system, which found that 72 percent of the female vets don’t use their nearest VA facility for primary care because it lacked women’s health services. KEEP READING >>>