White House Needs To Foster Military Health System Improvements, Editorial Says

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 10 Oct 2007 - 10:00 PDT

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A recent Government Accountability Office report finding that the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs have not fulfilled promises to improve care for servicemembers and veterans makes it "more painfully clear that wounded soldiers who seek disability care and benefits face bureaucratic chaos worthy of an infernal ring from Dante," a New York Times editorial states.

The Times continues that although a "dozen Congressional and executive agencies and blue-ribbon commissions are investigating" these issues, "there has been no comparable surge of creativity or commitment from the White House." According to the editorial, the latest of the "[w]orthy remedies" proposed to address these problems comes from a "Congressionally created commission that is urging wholesale changes in the veterans' benefit system, which hasn't been modernized since 1945."

Among its recommendations is "that the signature disabilities of the current war -- severe brain damage and the post-traumatic stress syndrome already afflicting 45,000 veterans -- be accorded top priority for improvement," according to the Times. The editorial continues, "With the number of wounded mounting daily, the White House needs to fix these problems," concluding, "For many veterans, their disabilities will endure their remaining lifetimes, outlasting the politicians who now proclaim them heroes while shortchanging them in the care and support they desperately need" (New York Times, 10/6).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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