Rocky
01-11-06, 17:14
sal; WHY THE VA NEEDS A MANDATORY BUDGET. solthum WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY!
The Virginian-Pilot
Military service in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to be far more perilous to the nation's pocketbook, for decades to come, than the Bush Administration cares to acknowledge.
A Virginia Army National Guard spokesman said recently that about one-third of members screened after returning home report combat-related medical problems.
That startling figure comes atop a report, forced out of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, that 1 in 4 soldiers who've left the military since Sept. 2001 filed a disability claim after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
In all, as many as 105,000 such veterans already are drawing benefits for long-term physical or physiological problems related to the fighting. As of May, 34,000 additional claims were pending.
Those numbers, and the accompanying medical costs, are sure to soar as the number of veterans grows. At current rates, taxpayers could eventually see as many as 400,000 disability claims and billions in medical bills just from the 1.5 million active-duty and reserve service members who have done time in Afghanistan and Iraq or are still there, according to Veterans for America, a prominent advocacy group.
If the war goes on for years, such numbers will grow accordingly. The current claims statistics became public earlier this month, after a nine-month fight by the National Security Archive at George Washington University to obtain them. The Veterans Affairs Department first denied a January Freedom of Information Act request, saying information charting disability requests from Iraq war veterans didn't exist.
Only after the Archive amended its request to ask for data from the "Global War on Terror," and threatened a lawsuit, did the department produce the numbers, nine months after the original request.
Playing games with semantics is inexcusable. Such information may be hidden for awhile, but truth will out when the bills come due, as when Veterans Affairs had to acknowledge a $3 billion shortfall in funding over the last two years.
The President, the Congress and the nation owe it to the relative few Americans who are shouldering the burden in Iraq and Afghanistan to ease their pain. Realistic planning and budgeting to process claims quickly and get the checks rolling with a minimum of red tape is essential.
According to Veterans for America, that's not happening. "It's taking longer for veterans to see a doctor, and it's taking longer for veterans to have their disability compensation claims processed," says Paul Sullivan, program director for the group and a former Veterans Affairs analyst.
The number of veterans having to wait more than six months for a disability claim decision doubled in the last year, he said.
Americans may not be able to dictate what's happening on the ground in Iraq. But we can certainly control the treatment of those who risk their lives and their families' well-being in our name.
No veteran should suffer twice, once on the home-front, for disabilities acquired in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WRITE TO YOUR REPRESENATIVES AND DEMAND THAT THE VA HAVE A MANDATORY BUDGET SO THAT PROGRAM NEEDED CAN AND WILL BE FUNDED. (Y)
The Virginian-Pilot
Military service in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to be far more perilous to the nation's pocketbook, for decades to come, than the Bush Administration cares to acknowledge.
A Virginia Army National Guard spokesman said recently that about one-third of members screened after returning home report combat-related medical problems.
That startling figure comes atop a report, forced out of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, that 1 in 4 soldiers who've left the military since Sept. 2001 filed a disability claim after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
In all, as many as 105,000 such veterans already are drawing benefits for long-term physical or physiological problems related to the fighting. As of May, 34,000 additional claims were pending.
Those numbers, and the accompanying medical costs, are sure to soar as the number of veterans grows. At current rates, taxpayers could eventually see as many as 400,000 disability claims and billions in medical bills just from the 1.5 million active-duty and reserve service members who have done time in Afghanistan and Iraq or are still there, according to Veterans for America, a prominent advocacy group.
If the war goes on for years, such numbers will grow accordingly. The current claims statistics became public earlier this month, after a nine-month fight by the National Security Archive at George Washington University to obtain them. The Veterans Affairs Department first denied a January Freedom of Information Act request, saying information charting disability requests from Iraq war veterans didn't exist.
Only after the Archive amended its request to ask for data from the "Global War on Terror," and threatened a lawsuit, did the department produce the numbers, nine months after the original request.
Playing games with semantics is inexcusable. Such information may be hidden for awhile, but truth will out when the bills come due, as when Veterans Affairs had to acknowledge a $3 billion shortfall in funding over the last two years.
The President, the Congress and the nation owe it to the relative few Americans who are shouldering the burden in Iraq and Afghanistan to ease their pain. Realistic planning and budgeting to process claims quickly and get the checks rolling with a minimum of red tape is essential.
According to Veterans for America, that's not happening. "It's taking longer for veterans to see a doctor, and it's taking longer for veterans to have their disability compensation claims processed," says Paul Sullivan, program director for the group and a former Veterans Affairs analyst.
The number of veterans having to wait more than six months for a disability claim decision doubled in the last year, he said.
Americans may not be able to dictate what's happening on the ground in Iraq. But we can certainly control the treatment of those who risk their lives and their families' well-being in our name.
No veteran should suffer twice, once on the home-front, for disabilities acquired in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WRITE TO YOUR REPRESENATIVES AND DEMAND THAT THE VA HAVE A MANDATORY BUDGET SO THAT PROGRAM NEEDED CAN AND WILL BE FUNDED. (Y)