Obama: Fixing VA could take years

[CommunityEditor]

President Barack Obama not only wants to improve the treatment of America’s veterans, but also to reach out to homeless veterans, as well as those who have turned their backs on — or are unaware of — the benefits they’ve earned.

“What we’re trying to do is just break down the hurdles that exist between veterans and VA,” Obama told Military Times and a small group of other defense reporters in an Aug. 4 meeting in the White House Roosevelt Room.

But lowering one of those hurdles — creating what Obama called “a VA that is consumer-friendly, that is oriented not towards keeping people out but bringing people in” — will not happen quickly, he said.

“It’s fair to say that this is a multiyear project,” Obama said. “We are going to be working vigilantly. We’re going to keep on pushing. We’re going to keep on prodding to make sure that both VA and DoD understand these very human issues are dealt with in the most thoughtful and effective way as possible.”

As evidence of that effort, Obama and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki touted a boost in VA funding, an increase of 4,000 claims adjusters since January 2007, a total of 18,000 mental health providers, a national suicide hotline, technological improvements in the benefits claims process, the ongoing effort to create electronic medical records that VA and the Pentagon can easily share and a more proactive and helpful attitude at both agencies.

But while hundreds of thousands of vets seek VA care and assistance, Obama said hundreds of thousands more need help but, for a variety of reasons, haven’t sought it.

Shinseki said one thing Obama has asked him to focus on “is homeless vets — 131,000 sleeping on our streets tonight. It’s about jobs; it’s about education.”

It’s also about changing the way VA views its mission, Obama said.

“I think a lot of the reason people fall through the cracks is historically sometimes VA has sat back and waited for people to come to them,” Obama said. “And part of what [Shinseki] has been doing is to make sure that VA is reaching out to them.”

Mental health problems have been overwhelming VA, however, and caregiver demand could outstrip supply despite the recent hires. According to a 2008 Rand Corp. study, an estimated 31 percent of returning war veterans suffer from mental health issues. Only about half of those who need treatment seek it, and only a bit more than half of those who seek treatment get “minimally adequate care,” Rand concluded.

Tackling that problem calls for a multipronged approach, Obama said.

One of the best ways of reducing incidents of PTSD, he said, “is to reduce the amount of time in theater without a break.” To that end, the administration is seeking ways to increase “dwell time” between deployments, has increased the size of the Army and Marine Corps, and is ending the Army’s stop-loss program, through which soldiers’ duty can be involuntarily extended.

Obama also wants better screening of returning troops and for commanders to keep working on reducing the stigma some feel over reporting such problems.

All of this will cost money; his administration has boosted VA’s budget to the tune of $25 billion over the next five fiscal years.

While expenditures won’t solve all the problems, Obama said, “money helps,” particularly in providing enough mental health care — to include ensuring that services for female veterans are available at all VA health centers.

Another potential VA health care challenge in coming years may be the rising tide of respiratory illnesses and blood cancers resulting from exposure to smoke from open-air burn pits used for waste disposal in war zones.

Obama said he is familiar with the issue. Acknowledging the long denials of past administrations over concerns such as atomic radiation tests, Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam and Gulf War illness, he said he wants an objective assessment of the burn-pit problem — the “best science possible.”

“I don’t want us hiding the ball if there’s a real problem there,” Obama said. “I am absolutely convinced that our commanders in theater are doing everything they can to protect their men and women. The key is to understand that our scientific knowledge and our medical knowledge may evolve. And if we find out that something’s wrong, even … it might not have been anyone’s fault … nobody is served by denial or sweeping things under the rug.”


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...erans_081309w/

[FORTM]

At long last"Light at the end of the tunnel".This time for real,we will live to see it!The VA system which once felt like the Twilight Zone is entering a dimension of reality and bona fide reform,let"s hope and pray this march continues in the right direction.The time is now,the place the LZ we make it!Part of our experience has been a nightmare.Maybe now our vets and the VA can "Wake up it`s reveille".------disabled soldier/combat vet.

[WILDJOKER5]

And if a gov health care system like the VA will take a long time to fix, why are we having another gov health care plan thrusted upon us? That whole insanity saying of trying the same thing and keep getting the same result is astounding. I like the phrase, "Humans are the only animals to learn from their mistakes, but seem to be the only animals to countinually make the same mistakes over and over." You zap a monkey everytime they go for the cup cake, they stop going for the cup cake.

[DAG48]

Ever notice that fixing the VA is always about out reach to some group, and health care for another?

Rarely, if ever, has anyone mentioned (let alone acted to implement) the Veterans Benefits Commission, www.VetsCommission.org ,recommendation in October of 2007 that called for an IMMEDIATE 25% increase in VA disability compensation and for Congress and the President to fix the Veterans Disability Compensation system.

Here is some information I hope folks find useful which explains one problem with Veterans Disability Compensation. You can find useful information at www.veterans.senate.gov , and also contact your U.S. Representative (or other veterans committee members) at www.house.gov and your U.S. Senators at www.senate.gov if you feel up to it.

If you decide to email them please consider including the following information and ask them if they can justify cheating disabled veterans out of disability compensation through the improper application of Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) over the last several Decades.

VA Disability Pay Schedule changes over time:

Before COLA: ----------------Presently (2009): --------If COLA was applied properly:

100% ----- was $150, ----- is $2673, ------------------- should be $2673
90% ------- was $135, ----- is $1604, ------------------- should be $2405
80% ------- was $120, ----- is $1427, ------------------- should be $2138
70% ------- was $105, ----- is $1228, ------------------- should be $1871
60% ------- was $90, ------- is $974, -------------------- should be $1603
50% ------- was $75, ------- is $770, -------------------- should be $1336
40% ------- was $60, ------- is $541, -------------------- should be $1069
30% ------- was $45, ------- is $376, -------------------- should be $801
20% ------- was $30, ------- is $243, -------------------- should be $534
10% ------- was $15, ------- is $123, -------------------- should be $267

So, does anyone not see where Disabled Veterans are getting the shaft?

Before COLA (VA pay scale is from the 1950's I believe), VA Disability Compensation was the same percentage as the Veteran's Disability Rating. However after SEVERAL DECADES of COLA being applied to each individual rating with the Government dropping off amounts less than whole dollars, any Disability Compensation less than 100% is roughly between 60% and 50% of what it should be for the 50% to 90% rated disabled Veterans, and less than 50% of what it should be for the 10% to 40% rated disabled Veterans.

The current VA disability payments are not what was originally intended when the VA Disability Pay schedule was passed into Federal Law. To fix the problem Congress needs to bring the Disability Pay Scale back to where payments are supposed to be, 10% of 100% up to 90% of 100% based on percentage of service connected disability, and pass legislation making it illegal to adjust COLA for each disability rating, rather apply it to the 100% VA Rating, then pay out 10% disability compensation as 10% of 100% through 90% of 100% disability compensation, as given in the third row example above. Only then will Veterans not be cheated out of their service connected disability compensation.

Legal action (via the Tucker Act (Fisher vs. the U.S. Government)) could/should be brought against the U.S. Government for failing to pay Disabled Veterans statutory amounts mandated by Federal law if Congress will not act to fix this problem. I am not affected by the pay scale discrepancy as laid out above, therefore I cannot initiate such a Legal Class Action on behalf of those concerned, otherwise I would not be sitting here talking about it, I would have already done so. But there are some of you out there that could. Don't wait for the Veterans Organizations to come to your rescue, they won't, not until there is such a public outcry that this cannot be ignored any longer.

I appreciate what the president is trying to do. But there is one thing that should be more easily accomplished-for ALL of the VA.

My friend goes to the Palo Alto hospital/clinic for treatment. They treat him with respect and honor. He doesn't have to ask for copies of his medical records. They gave them to him in a three-ringed loose-leaf binder without his asking for them or filing out a request form each time there is new data. I go to a contractor (to San Francisco) here in Eureka, CA and I have to fill out a form each time I want copies of my records. The facility I go to is small, understaffed and doesn't know what the work "triage" means! Is this variation unnecessary and inefficient and costly? YES!

AS a former licensed quality engineer I know that consistency in operations is a cost saving methodology. Why can't the VA operate thusly?

Thanks for your attention to this response...

[Shrike]

Originally Posted by WILDJOKER5

And if a gov health care system like the VA will take a long time to fix, why are we having another gov health care plan thrusted upon us? That whole insanity saying of trying the same thing and keep getting the same result is astounding. I like the phrase, "Humans are the only animals to learn from their mistakes, but seem to be the only animals to countinually make the same mistakes over and over." You zap a monkey everytime they go for the cup cake, they stop going for the cup cake.

I love that line.

[Rod Alley]

When are you media sycophants going to quit cuddling up to this president, and trying to present to us how much he cares? 131,000 Veterans homeless? are you kidding? There are that many in Florida alone. Throwing some money at it that we don't have, that will fix the problem. Never have i seen a president with so little respect of the military. They don't respect him cause he has never run a popsicle stand, much less a business or military unit. He isnt even a US citizen, and the media glosses over that.
He came from a corrupt place, and does nothing to Unite us, only divide us. His healthplan is a joke, wake up people!