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DAV ISSUES WARNING ON DOLE-SHALALA COMMISSION
RECOMMENDATIONS -- "Particularly troubling is
an ill-
advised recommendation for a wholesale overhaul
of
the disability evaluation and compensation
system."
This came to me via email.
DAV press release below:
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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement by Disabled American Veterans Regarding the President's
Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors Report
The report issued July 25 by the President's Commission on Care for
America’s Returning Wounded Warriors strikes a positive note in seeking
to improve support for the families of the wounded and calling for
better coordination between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the
Department of Defense. But some of its recommendations are misguided,
according to David W. Gorman, Washington Headquarters Executive Director
of the Disabled American Veterans.
It is somewhat ironic that recommendations from a two-year study by the
President's Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation’s
Veterans issued in 2003, which had broad support from the veteran
community, have gone nowhere. Yet these recommendations, some of which
could do serious harm to the system, are being put on a fast track,
Gorman said.
Gorman noted that most of the report’s six recommendations are already
being addressed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA has an
established nationwide health care system that is a recognized leader in
specialized treatment of the kinds of severe injuries and psychological
wounds associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet, the
commission has recommended that the Department of Defense take the lead
role in coordinating long-term care for those men and women with
traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder after they’ve
been released from the military’s medical system and into the VA’s.
Particularly troubling is an ill-advised recommendation for a wholesale
overhaul of the disability evaluation and compensation system. It would
establish a separate, complicated system of payments for combat-related
injuries while failing to address the accuracy and timeliness problems
that have plagued both the VA and DOD.
The 1.3 million-member Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit
organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932,
represents this nation’s disabled veterans. It is dedicated to a single
purpose: building better lives for our nation’s disabled veterans and
their families. For more information, visit the organization’s Web site
www.dav.org.
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Larry Scott --
