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MEDICAL AND DISABILITY COSTS MAY EXCEED WAR
OUTLAY
-- Thousands of troops who would have been
killed outright
in previous wars now survive their wounds.
Prof. Linda Bilmes
Story here...
http://www.registerguard.com/
news/2007/05/27/a1.warcost.0
527.p1.php?section=cityregion
Story below:
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Medical, disability costs may exceed war outlay
The cost of fighting the Iraq war has reached nearly $400 billion, and
the Congressional Research Service of the U.S. Library of Congress
estimates that the price tag goes up each week by another $2 billion.
However, providing medical and disability benefits to seriously wounded
Iraq war veterans for the next 40 years could add another $350 billion
to $700 billion to the total cost of the war, according to a study by
Linda Bilmes, public policy lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University.
Four U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rehabilitation centers - in
Richmond, Va.; Tampa, Fla.; Minneapolis, Minn.; and Palo Alto, Calif. -
already have been upgraded to regional polytrauma rehabilitation status.
This means they can provide acute, intensive rehabilitation for tens of
thousands of wounded veterans who, in past wars, would not have survived
their injuries.
Compared with previous wars, proportionally fewer service members are
losing their lives. Improved body armor, advances in medical technology
and the ability to airlift wounded soldiers away from battle quickly
means that thousands of troops who would have been killed outright in
previous wars now survive their wounds.
However, the types of injuries they now live through - described by the
VA as "predominantly multiple severe injuries as a result of explosions
and blasts" - means far more veterans will require expensive intensive
care followed by long-term rehabilitation and, in many cases, some level
of permanent disability.
VA records show that "improvised explosive devices, land mines and
fragments account for 65 percent of combat injuries," and of those,
nearly two-thirds of the injured "have some degree of traumatic brain
injury."
While many patients recover from their brain injuries in 18 to 24
months, "the majority remain mildly to severely injured and will require
lifetime care," the VA said.
How expensive that will be depends on how long the war lasts, the number
of veterans who eventually claim benefits and what their lifespans will
be.
Disability compensation ranges from a low of $115 per month to a high of
nearly $3,000 per month, depending on the degree of disability and the
number of people in the household. Additional payments may be granted in
extreme cases, up to $44,000 annually, according to Bilmes' study.
From the mildest to most severe disability, a veteran who begins
receiving benefits at age 25 and who lives to age 75 could receive
compensation ranging from $69,000 to $2.2 million, not including
cost-of-living increases.
Bilmes estimates that if 44 percent of veterans - the same rate as in
the first Gulf War - receive tax-exempt disability payments, the total
cost to meet those claims will range between $68 billion and $127
billion.
Medical costs for the number of troops deployed so far could add another
$282 billion to $536 billion. However, deployment of an additional
200,000 to 500,000 troops during the next several years likely would
boost that figure by another $40 billion, the study estimates.
U.S. Department of Defense statistics show that nearly 34,000 National
Guard, Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force personnel serving in Iraq have
been injured seriously enough so far to require medical air transport,
compared with just over 3,400 deaths.
That means that about 10 people have been injured for each fatality in
Iraq. It's a big change from previous wars, when far more people died of
their injuries, according to Bilmes' research: 1.2 wounded per fatality
in the first Gulf War; 2.6 in Vietnam; 2.8 in Korea; 1.6 in World War
II; 1.8 in World War I; 0.7 on the Union side in the Civil War and among
the Colonists in the American Revolution.
Statistics on the number of injured troops by state are not readily
available, but 74 service members from Oregon have died in the Iraq war,
with another 14 fatalities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kuwait. The dead
include 44 members of the Army, 18 of the National Guard, 17 of the
Marine Corps, five of the Navy, three of the Army Reserve and one of the
Air Force.
- Randi Bjornstad
COMPENSATION FOR INJURIES
Veterans may receive extra disability payments for serious disabilities
sustained during military service. They also may receive a one-time
payment for traumatic losses through military group insurance programs,
based on specific guidelines. For example:
$100,000: Total and permanent loss of sight in both eyes or both ears;
loss of both hands above the wrist or feet above the ankle; loss of one
hand and one foot; loss of one hand or foot and one eye; loss of one
foot and thumb and index finger of the same hand; loss of both thumbs;
quadriplegia, hemiplegia or paraplegia.
$75,000: Loss of speech and hearing in one ear; loss of one hand or foot
and hearing in one ear; loss of hearing on one ear and thumb and index
finger of same hand
$50,000: Permanent loss of speech; loss of sight in one eye; loss of
hearing in one ear; loss of thumb and index finger on same hand
$25,000: 15 days in a coma, with additional $25,000 each at the 30th,
60th and 90th days; loss of hearing on one ear; 30 days of inability to
carry out activities of daily living, with additional $25,000 each at
60th, 90th and 120th days
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
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Larry Scott --
