War Veterans to Get Upgrade in Benefits

Exposure of problems at a major Army hospital will galvanize lawmakers' efforts to provide vets with better health and other benefits.
By Andrew C. Schneider  

One thing the scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center ensures: Congress will finally upgrade the menu of veterans' benefits. Granted, Walter Reed is an Army hospital that mainly treats active personnel. But recent revelations of poor treatment, run-down facilities and bureaucratic delays there have opened the floodgates for complaints from vets and their families about similar problems in the health care system run by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

"We made a contract with our veterans that we would take care of them," said Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, in a speech March 5 at an American Legion conference on March 5 . "We are not fulfilling that contract." The majority Democrats already wanted to make good this year on campaign promises to improve the lot of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Now they can count on plenty of GOP support.

At the top of the agenda: additional funding for dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a widespread problem among veterans returning from Iraq. Lawmakers are discussing a package of about half a billion dollars for more counseling, research and public education about the disorder…

Without a major effort to fight PTSD, Iraq war vets could face the same types of post-service problems faced by soldiers who returned from Vietnam — notably, homelessness. "Why the hell are we preparing for [more] homeless vets?" Filner asked. "We should be making sure there are no more homeless vets."

Other likely improvements to veterans' benefits:

• An additional half a billion dollars in funding for the treatment of traumatic head injuries. The large number of roadside bombs in Iraq is spawning an epidemic of vets suffering from brain trauma.

• New caps for the annual hikes on the fees that veterans pay for health care. The idea is to make sure they don't outstrip increases in disability pay or pensions. This measure, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and cosponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), would block a measure proposed in the president's budget to double or even triple annual fees that military families would have to pay for various medical services — a proposal aimed at generating $8 billion in revenue and offsetting budget costs.

• A revamp of the Montgomery GI Bill to boost the amount of tuition support it provides and extend full education benefits to former Reserve and National Guard troops.

Coming up with the funds to pay for these measures won't be easy, given the tightness of the federal budget. But Congress will respond to heavy lobbying pressure from a collection of 35 veterans' organizations and — in the case of the GI Bill — from the higher education community. Odds are that, in the end, they'll get much of what they're asking for.

Can the VA manage these additional responsibilities? Not in its current state. The creaky agency needs a thorough overhaul after decades of neglect. Congress will approve funding for the hiring and training of more VA staff and for investment in new information technology. The initial aim will be to clear a backlog of roughly 600,000 medical claims. But truly bringing the agency up to speed will take years.

Go to original article

"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on VT may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. VT has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is VT endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)