Heckuva Way To Say Thanks
It's Veteran's Day.
It is fitting that on this day the Washington Post reminds us that our newest veterans are facing some pretty bleak prospects when they return from their tours of duty, and the economy is only part of the problem. Those who return with disabling injuries face months, sometimes years, of waiting for the benefits promised them. In an attempt to force quicker delivery of those benefits, two veteran's groups filed a lawsuit, and for good reason.
The VA estimated that in 2007 it took an average of six months to reach an initial decision on a benefits claim, according to the complaint, and processing appeals takes years.
Six months? That's outrageous when a returning vet has no means of support, or, even worse, if he or she has no means of supporting a family. I seriously doubt that there is some mean-spirited person in the Veteran's Administration is sitting in his office getting his jollies by denying disability benefits to soldiers missing a limb, part of a brain, or all of a mind. I suspect it is a case of rank incompetence in those appointed to run the VA coupled with a budget that couldn't possibly keep pace with the flood of applicants for disability payments and medical treatment.
Here are the numbers cited in the lawsuit filed by Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare:
The complaint noted that about 3.4 million of the 25 million U.S. veterans receive benefits, and that the number eligible for VA health care has grown since 2001 by about 800,000.
Those numbers will continue to grow as long as we are fighting the two wars the Bush Administration so cheerfully gave us. The least we can do while trying to extricate the nation from those wars is take care of the men and women who got caught up in that madness.
It's just a shame, not to mention shameful, that it has to take a lawsuit to do so.
It is fitting that on this day the Washington Post reminds us that our newest veterans are facing some pretty bleak prospects when they return from their tours of duty, and the economy is only part of the problem. Those who return with disabling injuries face months, sometimes years, of waiting for the benefits promised them. In an attempt to force quicker delivery of those benefits, two veteran's groups filed a lawsuit, and for good reason.
The VA estimated that in 2007 it took an average of six months to reach an initial decision on a benefits claim, according to the complaint, and processing appeals takes years.
Six months? That's outrageous when a returning vet has no means of support, or, even worse, if he or she has no means of supporting a family. I seriously doubt that there is some mean-spirited person in the Veteran's Administration is sitting in his office getting his jollies by denying disability benefits to soldiers missing a limb, part of a brain, or all of a mind. I suspect it is a case of rank incompetence in those appointed to run the VA coupled with a budget that couldn't possibly keep pace with the flood of applicants for disability payments and medical treatment.
Here are the numbers cited in the lawsuit filed by Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare:
The complaint noted that about 3.4 million of the 25 million U.S. veterans receive benefits, and that the number eligible for VA health care has grown since 2001 by about 800,000.
Those numbers will continue to grow as long as we are fighting the two wars the Bush Administration so cheerfully gave us. The least we can do while trying to extricate the nation from those wars is take care of the men and women who got caught up in that madness.
It's just a shame, not to mention shameful, that it has to take a lawsuit to do so.
Labels: Veterans' Administration
posted by Diane at 4:02 AM
3 Comments:
證據 時效
THe suicide rate is sky rocketing for this same group, and since over one half have symptoms of acute and chronic traumatic brain injury, mental illness and injuries from physical trauma, delaying their benefits mean delayed and denied care, preventable suffering, preventable harm and preventable deaths.
Causing death, whether immediate or delayed, is murder. This is being done in your name.
It's important to distinguish that this egregiousness is being done to veterans, and not the same patient population as that of Walter Reed. Those soldiers are still on active duty assignments and have not been medically discharged.
Thank you for posting about this on Veterans' Day.
I wrote a number of posts about the health care issues of service members and veterans which are links fested at my name.
The problem with the VA administration is probably the same problem that afflicts the whole American industry. A problem that this blog mentioned brilliantly in the post on CEOs. The administration exists for its own goal without regard to the VA goals, its societal importance and moral and ethical values.
Workers and managers in the VA thrive to maximize their personal goals. Veterans can go to hell.
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