Politics > Politics-USA > Republicans support the troops...when convenient, affordable, expedient, etc.
| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
18 Feb 2007 07:43:52 PM |
| Object: |
Republicans support the troops...when convenient, affordable, expedient, etc. |
http://watchingthewatchers.org/story/2007/2/18/17323/0376
Sun Feb 18, 2007
Support the troops...when convenient, affordable, expedient, etc.
By Lee Russ
As if you needed any further proof that all the grandstanding and
posturing by Republicans who now use "support the troops" as a
universal response to all criticism of Iraq is....grandstanding and
posturing:
Yes, of course it turns out that the same folks, from the White House
to Congress, have managed to not support the troops who have come home
from military duty.
From attacks on the VA budget (remember that a VA official some time
ago called the escalating cost of caring for vets a "drain on the
economy"), to playing games with the financial support for vets with
mental problems, to blocking treating physicians from accessing full
info on their vet patients, "we" have not come close to really
supporting the troops when the camera lights go off and the media
spinners go to bed.
Two quick examples:
1. The McClatchy Newspapers reported last week that:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/veterans/16636341.htm
...an investigation by McClatchy Newspapers has found that even by its
own measures, the VA isn't prepared to give returning veterans the
care that could best help them overcome destructive, and sometimes
fatal, mental health ailments.
McClatchy relied on the VA's own reports, as well as an analysis of VA
data released under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
McClatchy analyzed 200 million records, including every medical
appointment in the system in 2005, accessed VA documents and spoke
with mental health experts, veterans and their families from around
the country.
....
Moreover, the return of so many veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan is
squeezing the VA's ability to treat yesterday's soldiers from Vietnam,
Korea and World War II.
...
more than a decade ago, when the agency decided to move away from
focusing on high-cost inpatient hospital care and toward outpatient
clinics that could tend to veterans' primary care needs.
In addition, the VA scrapped its organizational structure and created
about 20 networks, more than 150 hospitals and - as of today - more
than 800 outpatient clinics.
The new system would provide "easier access to care and greater
consistency in the quality of care," the VA said in a March 1995
report.
At the same time, Congress passed legislation to make sure that the VA
didn't skimp on mental health care, with a key committee saying it was
concerned that mental health and other specialized treatment "may be
particularly vulnerable and disproportionately subject to budget
cutting."
The reason?
The "newly decentralized organization, under budget pressures and
focused heavily on instituting new primary care programs" might cut
the very programs on which "the Department's most vulnerable
beneficiaries depend," a congressional report said.
Congress ordered the VA to maintain the "capacity" of its mental
health care programs.
Over the next several years, however, VA management and a committee of
its mental health experts bickered over what "capacity" meant.
The expert committee said that "capacity" meant the number of people
served in special mental health programs and the amount of money
spent, adjusted for inflation.
The VA administration didn't adjust for inflation.
Because specialized mental health spending inched up after 1996, the
VA could report to Congress every year that it was maintaining the
capacity of its mental health services.
Its committee of experts, however, said that specialized mental health
services were declining and that the VA's use of unadjusted dollars in
an era of high inflation in medical costs rendered its annual reports
"meaningless."
At the same time, the VA began treating many more people for mental
health ailments, so the amount spent has plummeted from $3,560 per
veteran in 1995 to $2,581 per veteran in 2004 - even before correcting
for inflation.
(Overall, mental health spending during that period went from $2.01
billion to $2.19 billion.)
2. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/15/AR2007021501486.html
Department of Veterans Affairs doctors are furious over a recent
decision by the Pentagon to block their access to medical information
needed to treat severely injured troops arriving at VA hospitals from
Iraq and Afghanistan.
The VA physicians handle troops with serious brain injuries and other
major health problems.
They, rely on digital medical records that track the care given
wounded troops from the moment of their arrival at a field hospital
through their evacuation to the United States.
About 30 VA doctors in four trauma centers around the country have
treated about 200 severely wounded soldiers and Marines.
The docs had been receiving the complete digital records from the
Pentagon until the end of January, using the Pentagon's Joint Patient
Tracking Application.
...
The access cutoff came after [Tommy] Morris [director of Deployment
Health Systems]...instructed a colleague:
"If the VA currently has access I need a list of persons and I need
their accounts shut off ASAP. It is illegal for them to have access
without data use agreements and access controls in place by federal
regulations and public law."
That's right, folks, VA doctors treating seriously injured war vets,
were denied access to vital information because the VA's resident
bureaucrat didn't have the appropriate paperwork.
And where might all the poseurs from the right side of the
congressional aisle be right now, when "the troops" actually do need
them to get off their amply cushioned butts and do something?
__________________________________________________
"What a hell of a heaven it will be when they get all these hypocrites
assembled there!"
Mark Twain
Harry
.
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