‘Fears that Veterans health care and TRICARE will be undermined by the health reform legislation are unfounded.’ Shinseki

Statement from VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki

WASHINGTON - As Secretary of Veterans Affairs, I accepted the solemn responsibility to uphold our sacred trust with our nation’s Veterans. Fears that Veterans health care and TRICARE will be undermined by the health reform legislation are unfounded. I am confident that the legislation being voted on today will provide the protections afforded our nation’s Veterans and the health care they have earned through their service. The President and I stand firm in our commitment to those who serve and have served in our armed forces. We pledge to continue to provide the men and women in uniform and our Veterans the high quality health care they have earned.

President Obama has strongly supported Veterans and their needs, specifically health care needs, on every major issue for these past 14 months – advance appropriations, new GI Bill implementation, new Agent Orange presumptions for three additional diseases, new Gulf War Illness presumptions for nine additional diseases, and a 16% budget increase in 2010 for the Department of Veterans Affairs, that is the largest in over 30 years, and which has been followed by a 2011 VA budget request that increases that record budget by an additional 7.6%.

To give our Veterans further assurance that health reform legislation will not affect their health care systems, the Chairmen of five House committees, including Veterans Affairs Chairman Bob Filner and Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, have just issued a joint letter reaffirming that the health reform legislation as written would protect those receiving care through all TRICARE and Department of Veterans Affairs programs.

Link source at United States Department of Veterans Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Katie Roberts
March 21, 2010 katie.roberts@va.gov or 202-461-4982

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It was a little more than 'dental problems' - Secretary of VA, Jim Nicholson Resigns

Secretary of Veterans' Affairs, Jim Nicholson, announced he will be resigning on October 1, 2007, according to a press release from his office.

Nicholson has weathered a number of scandals, namely the massive loss of veterans' data in 2006, since he was sworn in as Secretary of Veterans' Affairs on February 1, 2005. Nicholson was also criticized for claiming the number of injured vets is overblown since "a lot of them come in for dental problems."

Nicholson plans to return to the private sector. He did not release any definite plans.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Resigns

Also I urge you to see and hear the fullness of Jim Nicholson in his inadequate responses being interviewed in video - link
'Bob Woodruff: To Iraq and Back' in which he responds to the VA's lack of ability or resources to respond to the severity of Traumatic Brain Injury with his comment 'a lot of them come in for dental problems.'

And see my story on the ABC special 'Bob Woodruff; To Iraq and Back' at Washblog.

excerpt

At a hearing held last June by the House of Representatives Committee on Veterans Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Health Jonathan Perlin testified that, "Traumatic Brain Injury accounts for almost 25 percent of combat casualties suffered in OIF/OEF by US Forces." With over 20,000 combat injuries to date during the ongoing global war on terror, this means that there are almost 5,000 service members suffering from traumatic brain injuries. While advances in body armor and battlefield medicine save the lives of many soldiers, they do not protect against impacts that cause brain injury.

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Iraq Vets - a growing part of the the new 'Homeless' population

Experts say growing numbers of former servicemen and women -- wracked by post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries and struggling with substance abuse and other ills -- are winding up on the streets.

It is a problem that military and Veterans Affairs officials and homeless advocates are struggling to cope with. A Department of Defense task force reported last week that "the military system does not have enough resources, funding or personnel to adequately support the psychological health of service members and their families in peace and during conflict."

From 2004 to 2006 -- the most current data available -- the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs identified as homeless 1,049 service members who served in the current fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

"It certainly is higher" than expected, said Peter Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs for the federal agency.

At least 300 veterans of those ongoing conflicts are homeless any given night, according to Veterans Affairs. The tally is a fraction of the more than 400,000 service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, and of the total number of veterans on the street.

Total homeless veterans number 200,000 nationwide, Veterans Affairs estimates. Almost half, 47 percent, served in the Vietnam War, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

But advocates and Veterans Affairs officials alike expect the ranks of new homeless veterans to swell in the next few years in part because of increasingly long deployments and the nature of combat in Iraq, where insurgent attacks make everywhere the front lines and no real safe zones exist.

Other reasons, some say, include the military's failure to properly screen troops for combat-related mental problems, a benefits system that is overly bureaucratic and increasingly overwhelmed by claims, and the fact that many members of the military are reluctant to seek help.

"If someone had set about trying to put together a recipe for PTSD and homelessness, they really couldn't have done better," said Amy Fairweather of Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group. The group provides counseling, housing and other services for veterans and advocates on their behalf.

While the United States has no female troops in designated combat roles, the psychological scars of serving in a place where anyone is subject to attack are apparent. Nearly 12 percent of all homeless veterans of the ongoing conflicts are women, compared to just 4 percent from the Vietnam War, in which women served as nurses and other roles behind the front lines, Dougherty said.

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GETTING HELP

For more information on veterans and homelessness:

The U.S. Department of

Veterans Affairs

1-800-827-1000

http://www1.va.gov/homeless/

The National Coalition

for Homeless Veterans

1-800-VET-HELP

http://www.nchv.org/

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