Gannett News Service: Better benefits planned for veterans
Reform aimed at improving access to care, cutting bureaucracy
Sun, April 5, 2009
BY JOHN YAUKEY • GANNETT WASHINGTON BUREAU • April 5, 2009
WASHINGTON -- For years, government care and benefits for veterans were often hard to get because of bureaucratic or geographic hurdles.
But that may be changing.
Veterans advocates -- including lawmakers and the newly appointed leaders of the Veterans Affairs Department -- are pushing sweeping reforms in benefits and management practices to modernize the system.
Plan to beef up benefits
Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, is shepherding a raft of legislation that would enhance education benefits, increase access to medical care and raise income ceilings that cut off access to services.
Almost 40% of the veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan
have sought help through the VA health system, with 300,000 reporting mental health conditions. Suicides among veterans who saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have spiked.
The VA budget is still in its earliest stages, but rough estimates of the cost of some of these reforms reach the tens of billions of dollars.
Getting to the vets
One of the most daunting challenges the VA faces is providing care to veterans who don't live near VA facilities.
Thomas Loftus, a Vietnam-era veteran now living in rural Virginia, said VA care, especially for those with complex brain injuries, is hours away.
"A three- to four-hour trip can be overwhelming for veterans with traumatic brain injury," he said.
"Even for our veterans needing routine care for conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, or group therapy for mental health conditions, they must travel one to two hours."
