Back in April, U.S News ran a cover story, "Cheating Our Vets," that detailed serious problems in the military’s disability program for wounded soldiers. On Wednesday, a presidential commission called for major improvements in veterans’ care, including the need to "completely restructure the disability and compensation systems."
The nine-member President’s Commission on Care for America’s Wounded Warriors, headed by former Sen. Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, gave its 29-page report to President Bush. The panel was established earlier this year amid press reports revealing scandalous conditions at medical facilities such as Walter Reed Army Medical Center, poor treatment of soldiers and marines suffering from traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, and other alarming shortcomings in veterans’ care.
In the case of the disability system, U.S. News reported that there are many cases in which the U.S. military appears to have dispensed low disability ratings to wounded service members with serious injuries and thus avoided paying them full military disabled retirement benefits. Veterans complain that the system is complex and riddled with discrepancies.
The commission reported that its survey of wounded and evacuated service members found the current disability rating system as administered by both the Defense Department and Veterans Administration is "poorly understood and a source of dissatisfaction." Just over 40 percent fully understood the disability evaluation process, the commission reported, and "virtually all recent evidence has pointed to the need for major reform."
--Terry Atlas
Reader Comments