Support Veterans?... "TIP OF THE ICEBERG"!

[Gimpy]

Tip of the Iceberg
October 12, 2004
By Ed Offley


I hope I'm wrong, but it seems that the old adage - "Another war, another generation of veterans screwed" - may be repeated soon.

It's still too early to predict how severe the federal government's shortfall will be in its ability to care for our physically and psychologically wounded veterans from war in Afghanistan and Iraq. But read the current projections that the Department of Veterans Affairs has already made, and it is clear that the already-overloaded VA system will soon find itself in danger of collapsing under the burden of caring for this newest wartime generation.

No citizen deserves a head-of-the-line pass for governmental benefits more than the veteran suffering from his or her battlefield wounds. Nevertheless, the apparent disinterest by Congress and Executive Branch to the plight of the Terror War Veterans is becoming clear for all to see. Consider several recent news reports:

The Washington Post on Oct. 3 revealed that just 18 months after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the Department of Veterans Affairs had already determined that 150,000 National Guard and reservist veterans mobilized for Iraq and the global war against terrorism had become eligible for health care and benefits. The bad news, the Post pointed out, is that the VA is currently struggling over a backlog of more than 300,000 claims by veterans from earlier conflicts.

Actual claims received by this new veterans' cohort are already significant, the VA reports: As of May 1, 2004, a total of 166,334 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan had left military service, of whom 26,633 - nearly 16 percent - had already filed benefits claims with the VA for service-connected disabilities. That number cannot but help to grow as the troop-rotation policy for Iraq continues and the bloody insurgency goes on.

In another report, VA officials say to date that nearly 28,000 of the 168,000 troops who served in Iraq and were discharged have sought care at least one VA facility. Of those who served in Afghanistan, 44,000 veterans have been deemed eligible for VA services, and 4,300 have already sought them. But as The Washington Times (a conservative newspaper ) noted, VA officials warned the Defense Writers Group this week that this is the tip of the iceberg : Dr. Mark Shelhorse, VA acting chief consultant for mental health, told Washington-based defense reporters that PTSD can take years, even decades, to develop. At this point, he said, only one percent of Iraq veterans and only 0.4 percent of Afghanistan veterans have been diagnosed with the condition.

VA Secretary Anthony Principi warned the reporters' group that medical experts estimate about 15 percent of veterans from the two conflicts - at least 24,000, based on current troop levels in the two AOs - will ultimately succumb with PTSD symptoms in the years ahead.

The VA does deserve some credit for doing its best with limited resources to prepare for this onslaught:

* The department has sent letters to 168,000 returning troops, informing them of the range of care available through the government. This includes psychiatric and psychological programs at each of 800 VA outpatient clinics nationwide, where vets can obtain counseling and other group and individual therapy, substance-abuse treatment, and temporary housing in community centers for homeless veterans. The VA has even paid for 10,000 beds in community centers across the nation for those with no place to live, officials say.

* In an attempt to narrow the historic gap between the Defense Department and VA over preparing military personnel for VA assistance, the veterans' department has opened offices on 168 U.S. military bases in the United States to make it easier for troops to find help even before their discharges, Principi said.

* As a stopgap measure, the VA is for now giving Iraq and Afghanistan veterans a higher priority over other benefit claims, with a goal of completing claims processing for each veteran within 100 days. With a current influx of 60,000 to 70,000 new claims each month from all veterans, the VA currently takes about 160 days on average to process each one.

The effort is making some limited progress in its goal to prevent suffering veterans from falling through the bureaucratic cracks. In southern California, the VA outreach program has written to 10,860 veterans, including National Guardsmen and reservists, urging them to seek medical services, including PTSD screenings, officials told the San Diego Union-Tribune this week.

"This is the first time [that] the VA came out and told combat veterans that you have two years of health care," VA caseworker Nichael Kilmer told the newspaper. "This has really never been done before on this scale."

But there is a serious flaw to the VA plan, however innovative and forward-leaning its elements are: There isn't enough money .

At the same time that the VA is trying to carry out its responsibilities to care for the Terror War Veterans, Congress and the Bush administration are actually moving to cut the VA budget. President Bush's VA budget request for 2005 calls for reducing the DVA staff that handles benefits claims by more than 500 personnel, and critics charge that the overall funding will be grossly insufficient to cover the new demand for services .

"The VA is not ready for an influx of new veterans from the ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq," warned Rep. Lane Evans, D-IL, who sought a recent General Accountability Office (GAO) study of VA capabilities to deal with the new generation of veterans. That report, issued on Sept. 20, concluded that the VA does not even have enough information to determine whether it can handle a rush of PTSD cases or not.

One veteran's activist strongly seconded that point. Rick Weidman, an official with the Vietnam Veterans of America , said the VA outreach effort looks good on the surface, but will fail for lack of funding and staffing. "What they are trying to do is terrific," Weidman told the San Diego newspaper. "What they are actually doing fails the men and women who served. There (are) simply not enough resources. People who tell you there is enough money are wrong."

The bottom line is that this worthy initiative by the VA will succeed or fail on the agency budget's bottom line.

Mr. President, members of Congress , do not fail these young men and women who as a result of their honorable service now need their government's help.


Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. ?2004 DefenseWatch.

###############


War Veterans Overloading VA
HeraldNet
October 4, 2004

Thousands of U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with physical injuries and mental health problems are encountering an overburdened benefits system, and officials and veterans groups worry that the challenge could grow as the nation remains at war.


The disability benefits and health care systems that provide services for about 5 million American veterans have been overloaded for decades, with a current backlog of more than 300,000 claims. And as of Aug. 1, nearly 150,000 National Guard and reservist veterans became eligible for health care and benefits because they were mobilized to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. That number is rising.

President Bush's budget for 2005 calls for cutting the Department of Veterans Affairs staff that handles benefits claims, and some veterans report long waits for benefits and confusing claims decisions.


"I love the military; that was my life. But I don't believe they're taking care of me now," said Staff Sgt. Gene Westbrook, 35, of Lawton, Okla. Paralyzed in a mortar attack near Baghdad in April, he has received no disability benefits because his paperwork is missing. He is supporting his wife and three children on his regular military pay of $2,800 a month as he awaits a ruling on whether he will receive $6,500 a month from the VA for his disability.


Through the end of April, the most recent accounting the VA could provide, a total of 166,334 veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan had separated from military service, and 26,633 - 16 percent - had filed benefits claims with the VA for service-connected disabilities. Less than two-thirds of those claims had been processed, leaving more than 9,750 recent veterans waiting.

######################

And................IF...Bush is RE-SElected.............it WILL GET WORSE!

[Gimpy]

?George Bush needs to learn a certain four letter word: FACT .

It is a fact that he has overextended the military to its thinnest levels in years and forced thousands of soldiers to involuntarily extend their deployments (a back-door draft).

It is a fact that he threatened to veto the $87 billion supplemental bill (that he condemns John Kerry for) which contained Senate provisions that would allocate an additional $1.3 billion for VA medical care and the provision that would expand benefits under the TRICARE Program, and sent troops into battle without body armor he accuses John Kerry of not voting for??.

It is a fact that he has broken his promise to America?s veterans and made it harder for them to access quality health care. George Bush is too busy attacking to get his facts straight and he is out of credibility,?

[Dakotaman]

Gimpy you have got to get your facts straight. John Kerry voted for the war and then voted against the bill that would give the money for the troops ENCLUDING BODY ARMOR.


" It is horrible to see everything that one detested in the past
Coming back wearing the colors of the Future" Remined you of anybody!!!!!!!!

God Bless America and keep J.F--K-ing Kerry out of OUR WHITE HOUSE

[Dakotaman]

Gimp, thats including , and remind, you got me so mad I can't spell

[Gimpy]

Then, I must be doing something RIGHT!..........If I can get you that mad!

PS...............You seem to have conveniently forgotten that YOUR boy, GEE-DUMBYA, first sent them into battle WITHOUT the body armour to begin with, huh?? :cd: He and Dumsfeld (whoops, I mean Rumsfeld, ........naw, I had it right the first time ) had nearly a YEAR before the troops were sent into battle to MAKE SURE they were adequately supplied with "body armour" BEFORE they were ever even SENT to Iraq. Guess they forgot about that little "detail", huh?.........Like a whole lot of other "details" they failed to think about!

[Dakotaman]

Gimpy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,You always seem to forget the writing on the wall! Oh thats right it's a forgery!

[razar]

HEY GIMPY HOMEY G---WE WENT THROUGH THIS BEFORE,AND YOU AGREED WITH ME.THIS VA STUFF IS THE RESULT OF BOTH PARTIES USING THE VA AS A POLITICAL FOOTBALL.
UNTIL VA IS FULLY FUNDED THIS WILL NEVER CHANGE NO MATTER WHO IS IN CHARGE.

[Gimpy]

The way to get that done is NOT with a "Republican" President, Republican U.S. Senate, and a Republican House of Representaives........as these past FOUR YEARS HAVE PROVEN!

They have done everything in their power to prevent this from becoming a "reality"!

Have you been in a cave, or on another planet for the past four years? Or are you just as deeply in denial as most other so called "compassionate conservatives"???

Just asking??

[razar]

lets see----the dems controlled all three branches off and on for forty years and the va is still not fully funded.

[Gimpy]

and those lying, cheatin, double-talkin Republicans in Congress have had 10 full years to supposedly "fix" all that shit??? RIGHT???

Like they PROMISED??? RIGHT??

Just like GEE-DUMBYA promised in his 2000 campaign, right??

They lied............Bush lied...............and it's time for military veterans and their dependents to send their ass packin back to Texas and wherever else they came from!