VA laboring under surge of wounded veterans

VA laboring under surge of wounded veterans: Analysis
By McClatchy-Tribune News Service
April 15, 2010, 4:57PM
JASON GROTT and TIM JONES, Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO -- In a sobering reminder of the long-term costs of war, a dramatic spike in disability claims during the last seven years has overwhelmed the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and nearly doubled the cost of compensating wounded veterans, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis.

The bulk of the increases didn't come from veterans of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but from those who served years or even decades before. Veterans from the Vietnam and Persian Gulf eras accounted for roughly 84 percent of the rise in spending, which hit $34.3 billion last year.

The surge from past eras comes even as more soldiers than expected are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan in need of care. With hundreds of thousands of troops still deployed, the VA already provides disability payments to nearly 200,000 veterans from the current conflicts, a number that is expected to balloon during the next 30 years.
read more here
VA laboring under surge of wounded veterans