#37 Another news article

Ok, in my opinion, it's freaking RIDICULOUS that it took us going to WAR before someone got their head out of their ass to realize that the VA system needed work!

Panel urges health-care overhaul for disabled vets
President's commission says the system is beyond 'patching'

By ROB HOTAKAINEN and LESLEY CLARK
McClatchy-Tribune
WASHINGTON — A presidential commission Wednesday recommended an urgent overhaul of the federal system that cares for disabled military veterans, including new "quality of life" payments to compensate for injuries.

The bipartisan panel also recommended better diagnosis and treatment of brain injuries and guaranteed care for post-traumatic stress syndrome for all soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Up to 20 percent of those who have returned from Iraq have reported symptoms of PTSD, an anxiety disorder caused by reaction to traumatic events.

"We don't recommend merely patching the system, as has been done in the past," concluded the nine-member panel, headed by former Kansas Republican Sen. Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

The report came as a unanimous Senate passed legislation that tackles some of the same topics, including boosting spending on the two injuries the commission called "common conditions of the current conflicts."

President Bush, who met with the commission at the White House before it voted on the final report, called the recommendations "very interesting."

After an afternoon run on the South Lawn with two veterans he'd met at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Bush said he'd told the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs to look at the recommendations, "take them seriously and to implement them, so that we can say with certainty that any soldier who has been hurt will get the best possible care and treatment that this government can offer."

The commission said its recommendations would result in the first major overhaul of the disability system for veterans in more than 50 years.

Among its other recommendations, the commission said that spouses and parents of seriously injured soldiers should qualify for six-month leaves under an extended Family and Medical Leave Act. Two-thirds of the injured service members reported that family members or close friends had stayed with them for an extended time while they were hospitalized, and one in five gave up jobs to do so.

The panel said too many disabled soldiers were getting "lost in the system" and that problems in coordinating care were far too common.