VA troubles history in the making, of mistakes

There seems to be a very strong call for heads to roll from the VA. I keep wondering when someone will actually take a lesson from history.

"The Department of VA predicts it will need to treat 5.8 million patients next year, including 263,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets returning with serious injuries requiring expensive care. Murray and her Democratic colleagues believe the Bush budget will force new costs--such as increased prescription copayments and new enrollment fees--onto veterans themselves."

The VA, last year, was underprojecting how many men and women would come into the VA system from Iraq and Afghanistan. They expected 45,000 and ended up with over 100,000. Now they are projecting 263,000 Iraq and Afghan vets next year. But we're hearing from independent sources that the figure will be over 300,000. Without being a budget or numbers guru, you can realize that 1.5 million men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and are coming home with everything from minor injuries to cases of TBI [traumatic brain injury], lost arms and limbs, and PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. You know the number is going to be high. But they seem to want us to believe that the number is going to be lower. Which means we don't fund VA adequately.

What Nicholson is trying to do is to discourage men and women going into the VA in order to keep numbers down and say to the country: this doesn't cost that much. This is a budget gimmick they have tried to throw at us, not as a way of helping veterans or keeping their promise to veterans in a time of war, but as a way of balancing the budget on backs of veterans.

This question really tops things off

What about mental health care? You say the VA is predicting fewer in-patient mental-health cases.

I'm very worried. The number of mental health-care patients that the VA is projecting in the budget is less than what we currently have today. I was in Iraq a year and a half ago and I was told by Commander Casey [Army General George Casey Jr., who recently stepped down as the highest-ranking military official in Iraq] that this war is going to create a high number of patients who need mental health care because it's what he called a 24/7 war. There is no front line to go back from, no place to get away from the intensity of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] going off next to you.…The VA itself has issued statements saying they do not have enough clinicians to see the people who need mental health care. There is no one within the lower echelons of the VA who predicts a lower number of mental-health patients; the only people predicting this are the president and secretary Nicholson. My perspective is they are doing it so they don't have to ask for money and show what the cost of this war is.

Where did all of this come from? It came from a Newsweek article back in 2007. Shortchanging Veterans’ Health Care By Eve Conant Filed: 2/26/07

Nicholson was replaced by Peake

VA, more promises, more waiting for fix to come
VA secretary pledges to cut 5 weeks off wait
By Hope Yen
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 7, 2008 13:04:06 EST

Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake pledged Thursday to trim more than five weeks off the time it now takes to get the first check to a war veteran who files a disability claim.

In his first appearance before Congress since becoming secretary, Peake also sought to assure lawmakers that President Bush’s proposed 2009 VA budget of $91 billion would be sufficient to meet the growing demands of veterans of a protracted Iraq war. The proposal is a 3.7 percent increase from the previous year, but several lawmakers have criticized it as inadequate after factoring in inflation.

Peake wants to reduce wait times from roughly 180 days to 145 days by the start of next year. He cited aggressive efforts to hire staff, noting the VA will have 3,100 new staff by 2009. VA also is working to get greater online access to Pentagon medical information that he said will allow staff to process claims faster and move toward a system of electronic filing of claims.

Peake promised to “virtually eliminate” the current list of 69,000 veterans who have waited more than 30 days for an appointment to get VA medical care. Such long waits runs counter to department policy, and a group of Iraq war veterans have filed a lawsuit alleging undue delays. He said VA plans to open 64 new community-based outpatient clinics this year and 51 next year to improve access to health care in rural areas.

“We will take all measures necessary to provide them with timely benefits and services, to give them complete information about the benefits they have earned through their courageous service, and to implement streamlined processes free of bureaucratic red tape,” Peake said in testimony prepared for a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Thursday.

On ALS this was his advice

Mikolajcik urged Peake to grant all veterans with the disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a service-connected disability. Currently only Gulf War veterans are covered, Mikolajcik said. "My comrades in arms don't get the same benefits, and it's not fair," he said.

For unknown reasons, veterans have a 60 percent higher chance of developing ALS.

The retired general described the meeting as "very personable." "Now we just wait and pray," he said.