VA Conceals Costs Of Disability Claims!

[Gimpy]

No wonder the VA budget continues to be 'shortchanged' these past few years!

This should wake up some folks around here!


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Veterans' care a concealed cost of war


By Dan Moffett
Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer



The National Security Archive is an independent, nongovernmental research group located at George Washington University.


Researchers there use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain declassified government documents and make them available to the public.


In January, the NSA asked the Department of Veterans Affairs for records about the number of disability claims filed by veterans who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. How the government responded to the request and what the researchers ultimately found out should make Americans worry even more about where the country is heading.


At first, the VA made the amazing pronouncement that no documents existed. The archive's researchers were asked to believe that the government had no records of claims by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Of course, this could not be true. For the next nine months, the NSA made repeated requests and finally threatened to sue the VA if it did not turn over the records. This month, the government relented and complied. There were plenty of reports and plenty of documents.


"For the agency to take nine months to 'find' information that is of current public interest in the context of the ongoing global war on terrorism is astounding," said Meredith Fuchs, the NSA's general counsel. "It is one thing for the VA to be reluctant to deliver bad news but another thing entirely to deny the existence of the information."


Thousands coming home disabled


The news definitely was bad. The records show that about one in five service members leaving the military after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan has been disabled to some degree. More than 104,000 of the 567,000 returning veterans from the two wars have been given disability compensation so far, and more are applying for it each day. At least 1.5 million U.S. troops will serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, which suggests the possibility of 400,000 disabled veterans if current proportions hold.


The potential burden to U.S. taxpayers is staggering. The Bush administration last year had to send VA Secretary Jim Nicholson to ask Congress for $2 billion more for veterans' care because of an embarrassing series of inadequate budget requests. Senate Republicans are pushing a bill that would appropriate $26 billion for veterans medical services next year - about 15 percent more than the administration proposed.


"Failure to do otherwise," says Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, "would be an open invitation to returning to the budget shortfalls of the past that contributed to historic primary care backlogs."


The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the administration's 2007 veterans' health budget is $10 billion below what's needed. Backlogs in claims processing and appointments with physicians have increased during the past three years, due to the troops returning from the battlefields. The administration admits that the year began with 52,000 people stuck on waiting lists to receive care at VA hospitals, but veterans groups believe the number is much higher now.


Numbers only will get worse

Is there any wonder why the VA is reluctant to give up information on the growing ranks of Iraq and Afghanistan vets who are receiving disability compensation? The White House can't begin to defend its budget requests if all the numbers are put on the table. The numbers will only get worse, as healthy veterans develop symptoms of service damage years later. About 30,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets already have sought treatment for post-traumatic stress, and that number could increase exponentially as war-related psychological problems develop.


The news last week that the Pentagon is making contingency plans to keep 140,000 troops in Iraq through 2010 raises the ominous prospect of creating a generation of disabled veterans that would rival those from the Vietnam War. President Bush not only will pass on the Iraq mess to his successor but also the incalculable bills for treating its wounded.


Were it not for the Freedom of Information Act and the National Security Archive, Americans might be tempted to believe that the White House has a plan to care for the nation's veterans.

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What have I been saying for YEARS now??

Folks better wake the hell up!