Wounded Vets STILL Waiting For Healthcare 1 Year After Walter Reed Scandal

The nation was shocked by the Washington Post's exposé of Walter Reed and how our returning soliders were being mistreated one year ago. We assumed that the national embarrassment of the scandal would motivate our politicans into action to quickly make amends to those who made the ultimate sacrafices on our behalf. You know what they say about people who assume.

Exceprt: "It has been more than a year since The Washington Post reported on nightmarish conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and recounted the scandalous treatment of severely wounded veterans who spent months trying to get their disabilities properly recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs, then often months more battling claim rejections that leave the vets and their families struggling financially, emotionally and, of course, physically.

This wasn’t one of those revelations that made headlines for a day or two and then faded. Oh, no. There were hearings in Congress—too many to count. And commissions. And the usual vows to do better. This week, the Post won a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize for its Walter Reed exposé.

The government’s response earns no such accolades.

Despite a new law called the Dignity for Wounded Warriors Act, returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have suffered significant physical injuries or, increasingly, have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health ailments, still must navigate a bureaucratic maze that requires weeks or months for approval of their disability claims. They wait alongside about 400,000 of their fellow veterans with backlogged cases. The average waiting time, according to government data compiled by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, is about six months.

The act, says Linda Bilmes of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, is supposed to bring improvement, but all it did was take measures to smooth the bureaucratic glitches the wounded must navigate when they leave the military’s medical system and try to enter the veterans’ health system. ' ... Fundamentally, the problem is that veterans—soldiers when they get back—should be automatically enrolled in the VA and automatically enrolled for benefits.'

Another part of the Wounded Warriors Act is now entangled in a lawsuit in which the group Veterans for Common Sense argues that a judge must force the VA to provide timely care and do so for the full five years required under the legislation—a time frame that Paul Sullivan, the veterans group’s director, charges the Bush administration opposes. 'The system is broken,' he says."

-----

I doubt if any of us not in the military (or that don't have familiy) in the military really understand what's going on or how the VA system works.

Here's how I think it should work: universal healthcare for all soliders and their immediate families (spouse, children) forever.

There really shouldn't be any paperwork at all that soliders need to fill out. They should be able to go into any hospital anywhere in the US, present their ID card and be immediately treated for any health problem they may at no cost to them. The hospital just sends the bill to the VA or wherever and that's that. Same should apply for PTSD or whatever mental health services they may need. No paperwork to fill out. No insurance forms. Just make an appointment and the Dr's send the bill to Washington.

Seems simple enough and isn't that the least we can do for our volunteer forces?

If we can "lose" few hundred BILLION in Iraq (just disappeared!) and not give it a second thought I'm sure we can find the money to ensure that our veterans can have universal healthcare for life.