Washington – Injured soldiers returning home for medical treatment face an unacceptable maze of paperwork and bureaucracy, leaders of a presidential commission on veterans’ care said Saturday.
At its first public meeting, the nine-member commission heard from veterans, spouses and advocacy groups who decried what they said was a failed system. The commission pledged to work quickly to find solutions rather than assign blame.
“This is not going to be a witch hunt,” said former GOP Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, a head of the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors.
Dole said the panel would build upon the work of at least nine congressional committees and other government panels investigating veterans’ health care problems. Those probes followed disclosures in February of squalid conditions and poor outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Their reviews in recent weeks have pointed to inadequacies with the treatment of brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as outpatient care.
Donna Shalala, health and human services secretary for President Clinton, said a report was planned by late July that would be pragmatic and “solution-driven.”
“Our timeline for action is very short,” she said. As a result, she said, commissioners may not be able to visit every military hospital and VA clinic.
Shalala encouraged injured troops and veterans to express their concerns on the panel’s website, www.pccww.gov. At the hearing, the commission heard stories of confusion and frustration as veterans navigated the vast Pentagon and VA network. Veterans complained of bureaucratic double talk when seeking help and said the problems extended beyond Walter Reed.
Veterans must take on “mammoth bureaucracies,” said Bobby Muller, president of Veterans for America. He said the government has been slow to respond to brain injuries and other medical problems from the Iraq war.
Three commissioners who experienced problems after they or their spouses were injured in Iraq said their final report would address the maddening red tape.
Tammy Edwards spoke of recommending ways to alleviate burdens on families. In 2005, her spouse, an Army staff sergeant, was burned severely by a 500- pound bomb that hit his vehicle in Iraq.
“I have watched several marriages fall apart because the spouses did not receive the emotional support necessary to help them through such a challenging time,” Edwards said.
The commission’s next hearing will be April 23 in Washington.
