What it means for you
Since Sept. 11, 2025, VA can pay up to 100% of its nursing home rate for a veteran's home and community care, up from 65%. For veterans with ALS or spinal cord injuries, VA can go higher.
Who benefits: Veterans in VA care who need help at home instead of a nursing home. VA expects about 200 veterans with complex conditions to use the higher cap in fiscal year 2026.
When a veteran needs daily help but wants to stay home, VA can pay for a home health aide, respite care for family caregivers, adult day care, skilled home health care, or Veteran Directed Care, where veterans hire their own helpers. Before this law, VA could spend only up to 65% of what nursing home care would cost. When veterans reached that cap, they had to pay the remaining costs themselves or enter nursing home care. Now VA can spend up to the full nursing home rate. For veterans with ALS, a spinal cord injury, or a similar condition, VA can approve even more after a clinical review.
VA began using the higher limit on Sept. 11, 2025. Ask your VA social worker whether it could cover your care.
Sen. Jerry Moran introduced the home care bill with Sens. Jon Tester and Maggie Hassan in 2022 and again in 2023. Reps. Julia Brownley and Jack Bergman carried the House version. It became Section 120 of a broader veterans package named for former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a longtime military-caregiver advocate. Committee leaders Mike Bost, Mark Takano, Tester, and Moran moved the package through Congress. The law delayed a scheduled cut in VA home-loan funding fees until June 9, 2034; CBO estimated that would collect $1.523 billion from VA borrowers over 2025–2034 to offset the package’s expanded benefits. The Senate passed it without objection, the House passed it 382–12 with support from both parties, and President Joe Biden signed it on January 2, 2025.
VeteransHealth careSeniors
Sources
- Public Law 118-210, Section 120U.S. Government Publishing Office, January 2, 2025
- Implementation of Section 120 of the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement ActFederal Register (Department of Veterans Affairs), January 12, 2026
- VA increases in-home and community-based services expenditure cap for veterans with complex conditionsThe American Legion, February 2, 2026
- Sens. Moran, Tester & Hassan introduce Elizabeth Dole Home Care ActU.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, February 1, 2023
- H.R. 542, Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act of 2023Congress.gov
- Roll Call 504, S. 141Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, December 16, 2024
- DAV statement on the passing of the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement ActDAV, December 17, 2024
- H.R. 8371 cost estimateCongressional Budget Office, November 21, 2024
How we checked this
Drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic) on November 11, 2026. Checked against its sources by GPT-5.6-sol (OpenAI) on November 11, 2026, which corrected it. Confirmed the 100% cap, Sept. 11 implementation, credits, roll call, and current status. Added the law’s VA home-loan fee cost and removed two claims stronger than the cited evidence.
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