I have published a few of the questions in this article on OPED News but I will elaborate a few more of them here and my thinking behind them.
I am one of the 2.6 million disabled veterans that draw compensation checks from the Department of Veteran Affairs, approximately 9% of all veterans from military service from all the wars, going back thru history end up with some level of diability from 10% thru 100% plus Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) however the new wars in the Middle East appear to be approaching a level of 15%, an extremely high percentage, either from Traumatic Brain Injuries or PTSD, both more of a problem than previous conflicts.
The veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars filed a lawsuit last year in California not asking for money, but for medical care and proper and timely handling of compensation claims by the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) in this diary Melissa Kasnitz, a DRA lawyer on the case explained what happended in Judge Conti's court room last week.
Plain and simple he did not buy the administrations arguments that the federal courts had no right to hear the veterans lawsuit, that the DVA was not a "non-adversarial" process.
From Melissa's diary:
The ruling affirms the rights of veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to sue in federal court over the huge backlog of claims, the lengthy waiting time that veterans face in receiving needed mental health care, and the inadequacy of care for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court in July, seeks a judicial finding that VA’s system of handling claims and appeals is so dysfunctional that it violates veterans’ constitutional and statutory rights. The suit also calls for court orders requiring VA to provide immediate medical and psychological help to returning troops and to screen them for risk of suicide.
"VA first mistreated hundreds of thousands of veterans, then took the position that the vets could not bring their grievances to court to be heard," says Melissa Kasnitz, the managing attorney for Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a non-profit law firm in Berkeley, California. "Today, VA’s shameful effort to keep these deserving veterans from their day in court was rejected."
Most disabled veterans cannot receive medical treatment without an approved disability claim. However, VA now has a backlog of over 600,000 applications for claims, and a decision on a claim can take up to twelve years to be processed through appeals. Some pending claims go back to the Vietnam era. Even after claims have been approved, veterans face serious problems in receiving care. Because the demand for medical care and treatment by VA has risen dramatically since the U.S. became involved in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, VA has long waiting lists and, in some cases, no appropriate treatment for disabled veterans is available.
"We can now address the disgraceful fact that it takes an average of 177 days for VA to process an initial claim for disability benefits, and an additional 657 days, on average, for an appeal, so most veterans wait years for needed medical and mental health treatment, unless they give up or die first," said DRA attorney Sid Wolinsky.
Many disabled veterans give up in despair or frustration, fall into drug or alcohol dependency, or commit suicide. In fact, the total number of military suicides in 2005 was greater than the cumulative death toll from Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, according to a CBS News investigation. "Improper delays and denials of treatment and benefits have contributed to an epidemic of suicides," according to Co-counsel Gordon Erspamer of Morrison & Foerster; "Because VA refuses to act, we have to ask the Court to protect our returning soldiers."
The questions I will ask in your appearances here in South Carolina while you are campaigning for our votes hopefully in town hall meetings are:
In regards to this lawsuit what will YOUR administration handle these problems?
Does a federal court have to make a legal judgement to make the DVA do the job they are supposed to be doing or will you appoint a Secretary of the VA that can make these changes by simply issuing the proper orders?
Will your Secretary of the VA accept Linda Blimes of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government's ?recommendations on handling of veterans claims?
Excerpts from her report:
The best solution might be to simplify the process -- by adopting something closer to the
way the IRS deals with tax returns. The VBA could simply approve all veterans’ claims
as they are filed – at least to a certain minimum level -- and then audit a sample of them
to weed out and deter fraudulent claims. At present, nearly 90 percent of claims are
approved. VBA claims specialists could then be redeployed to assist veterans in making
claims, especially at VA’s "Vet Centers." This startlingly easy switch would ensure that
the US no longer leaves disabled veterans to fend for themselves.
Conclusions
President Bush is now asking for more money to spend on recruiting in order to boost the
size of the Army and deploy more troops to Iraq. But what about taking care of those
same soldiers when they return home as veterans? The number of veterans who are
returning home with injuries or disabilities is large and growing. We have not paid
careful enough attention, or devoted sufficient resources, to planning for how to take care
of these men and women who have served the nation.
There has been a tendency in the media to focus on the number of US deaths in Iraq,
rather than the volume of wounded, injured, or sick. . This may have led the public to
underestimate the deadliness and long-term impact of the war on civilian society and the
government’s pocketbook. Were it not for modern medical advances and better body
armor, we would have suffered even more loss of life.
One of the first votes facing the new Democratic-controlled Congress will be yet another
"supplemental" budget request for $100+ billion to keep the war going. The last
Congress approved a dozen such requests with barely a peep, afraid of "not supporting
our troops".If the new Congress really wants to support our troops, it should start by
spending a few more pennies on the ones who have already fought and come home.
How will your administration help the families of the veterans with PTSD, as of now VA has no programs where the families are offered counseling to deal with problems created by their loved ones suffering from PTSD, since PTSD is a medical problems that affects the entire family and not just the veteran, how do you propose to help the wives, the husbands and the children of the injured soldiers?
PTSD is unique in the fact that the veteran is not the only person affected by this type of injury, the repurcussions are felt by all who love the veteran and the damage to the brain caused by PTSD, is felt by all who normally have daily contact with these type of injured soldiers. Will your administration make help available to them, also?
To put things into number perspectives here, last week everyone was talking about the endorsement of the Nevada Culinary Workers approximately 60,000 members.
Disabled veterans number 2.6 million and according to DR Bilmes estimates the current wars has the potential to create 730,822 new disabled veterans by the year 2014 raising the number of American disabled veterans to 3.3 million.
Taking care of America's veterans properly could add tremendous support to any politicians voting block, ignoring them could also lead to a politicians political life. Veterans and their families pay attention to voting records on issues related to them and their families. Veterans take civic duty like serving their nation and voting as American as apple pie, ignore us at your own risk.
I think we deserve as much politicians focus as any unionized workers, we can deliver an election. Just be honest with us, and don't just use us for photo ops. We have earned our veterans benefits, we should not have to fight our own government for them.