VA review of Iowa City VA Health Care System

Review of Quality of Care, Management, and Operations, Iowa City VA Health Care System
Iowa City, IA
August 29, 2012

Executive Summary
The VA Office of Inspector General Office of Healthcare Inspections conducted a comprehensive review of the Iowa City VA Health Care System in response to a request from Senator Charles E. Grassley. OIG assessed the merit of allegations about quality of care and that concerns expressed by staff “have been largely ignored.”

All system employees were invited to respond anonymously to a survey about patient care and working conditions through a dedicated OIG internet portal. Individuals responding to the survey could, if they wished, provide specific details and contact information.

Analysis of responses to the survey afforded an opportunity to focus on issues that might otherwise receive less attention.

During two site visits, OIG staff inspected the parent facility and two Community Based Outpatient Clinics, and conducted scheduled and unscheduled interviews with approximately 125 individuals, including senior leaders, mid-level managers, front line employees, patients, and volunteers.

We found that high quality medical care has been maintained. However, we also found that a pervasive lack of support for staff problem-solving is a potential threat to patient safety, and that several process deficiencies were identified. During a prolonged period when key leadership positions were held by individuals on a temporary basis, decisions were delayed or never made, and a highly competent professional staff was frustrated by the persistent ineffectiveness of senior leadership.

We recommended that the Veterans Integrated Service Network Director ensure that system leaders take appropriate action in response to identified problems and communicate action plans to staff. We also recommended that system leaders clarify organizational lines of authority and responsibility and improve components of Environment of Care and Pharmacy management.
read more here

Romney lied to veterans again

First lie is that CONGRESS DID IT no matter what President Obama wanted. As Obama opened the door to more veterans being able to file claims the congress did not come up with the funds to hire enough workers to do it. Now Congress is demanding answers? They are right to question the spending on conventions but how about someone in congress demand answers from the Veterans Affairs committee and how all of this got so bad for veterans when they were supposed to be taking care of them AND ACTUALLY DOING THEIR JOBS?

Second is that Congress is the BANK ACCOUNT HOLDER so it is up to them to come up with the money and figure out who gets stuck with the bill. How Obama managed to do anything is shocking when you consider that members of congress said getting him out of office was their number one job in 2010.

Next lie is more of an omission. Romney and Ryan want to cut everything the troops and our veterans not only need, but already paid for when they served risking their lives.

All of the massive failures on veterans' issues are directly tied to CONGRESS! Romney wants to make it all worse with the full support of his group in congress!

Romney Says Obama Has Failed Veterans
Aug 30, 2012
Military.com
by Mike Hoffman

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told service members and veterans he would not raise their TRICARE medical insurance fees among other campaign promises in a speech Wednesday to the American Legion National Convention.

Pentagon leaders over multiple presidential administrations have proposed raising TRICARE fees in order to prevent personnel costs from overtaking the Defense Department's annual budget. Congress has repeatedly rejected the proposal.

Romney said as commander-in-chief he would not allow such a proposal to reach Congress.

"I will not ask our war time military to shoulder sacrifices while the rest of government grows," Romney said. "I will not ask our service members, active and retired, to pay more for their health care to free up room for Obamacare."

The Pentagon's efforts to raise TRICARE fees predate the Obama administration and the Affordable Health Care Act, but Romney's remark drew applause from the Legionnaires.

The Republican nominee addressed the convention a day before his speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Romney's speech was a rare opportunity for the presidential candidate to speak about military issues as the economy has dominated the campaign.
read more here

Here's a thought. This is what the House Oversight Committee is supposed to do.

Oversight Committee Mission Statement

We exist to secure two fundamental principles. First, Americans have a right to know that the money Washington takes from them is well spent. And second, Americans deserve an efficient, effective government that works for them. Our duty on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is to protect these rights.

Our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to taxpayers, because taxpayers have a right to know what they get from their government. We will work tirelessly, in partnership with citizen-watchdogs, to deliver the facts to the American people and bring genuine reform to the federal bureaucracy.

This is the mission of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Military veterans say mental health services need to improve

Military veterans say mental health services need to improve
By DIONNE GLEATON
T and D Staff Writer

Zeke Felder wanted to serve his country by enlisting in the military, but the Army drafted him first. Now the Vietnam War veteran is not finding the government as quick when it comes to providing the treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It looks like it takes forever to get that done. I don’t think a veteran should wait that long. They make every veteran prove what they did, what happened and what caused the trauma, and that’s very hard to do. It took me quite some time to get the claims that I applied for, but I encourage any veteran to become a member of a group,” said Felder, who is a member of the South Carolina Veteran’s Group based in North.

“Sometimes a veteran, especially if he has PTSD, has problems with family matters. You got to really experience these things to really know what a veteran is going through. We talk to veterans about how to cope with problems and also try to put them on the right road for putting in claims and so forth,” he said.

Processing claims is not the only difficulty. Some veterans are unhappy with the telemental health services being offered by the Orangeburg County Outpatient VA Medical Clinic to provide veterans living in rural and underserved communities with improved access to specialty care.

Those veterans feel they are losing the person-to-person therapy they’re used to. Instead, they’re being referred to a phone-based service.
read more here

Florida seniors deserved the truth from Paul Ryan but didn't get it

UPDATE

Let me make this perfectly clear. It doesn't matter if they are Republicans or Democrats. If we don't insist they at least tell us the truth, we all lose so it doesn't matter which party "wins" the election. If we don't insist they live up to what most of us actually do want, the media won't do it either. We end up hearing a lot of nonsense and wonder how things got so bad for us. Be an informed voter! Know what candidates are really up to so you can tell the difference between what they say to us and what they actually do after we elect them.

The truth is Obama's budget and Ryan's make cuts to Medicare. Obama cuts costs, not services. The difference comes from what they plan on doing with the savings. Ryan gives the money to companies and Obama gives it to the recipients. Ryan's budget will cost seniors out of their own pockets. In other words, Ryan's speech was short on truth and more like a dog distracting the hens so the wolf would sneak attack.

One more thing Ryan didn't talk about was his budget also calls for $11 billion cuts to the VA and kicks off 1.3 Million Vets.

In Florida, a conversation with Paul Ryan
By Alex Sanz
WPTV NewsChannel 5
Posted August 19, 2012

THE VILLAGES — U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. warned Florida seniors about the perils of Medicare during a campaign appearance here on Saturday, telling an overflow crowd of mostly retired seniors that President Barack Obama had raided the entitlement program to help pay for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

"We want to earn your support. We want to earn victory. So that when we win we have the mandates — the moral authority — to stop kicking the can down the road and get this country back on track," he said.

Ryan, who was joined at the campaign appearance by his mother, Betty Douglas, a part-time Lauderdale-By-The-Sea resident and Medicare recipient, drew clear distinctions between how he and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would reform Medicare.

"The first thing we have to remember is President Obama raided $716 billion from the Medicare program to help pay for the Obamacare program," he said during a one-on-one interview with FLDemocracy.

Danny Kanner, a spokesperson for Obama for America, defended the president's position on Medicare after the campaign appearance, and said Ryan and Romney had lied to seniors about their plan for reform because its details were "politically suicidal."

"Seniors would face higher Medicare premiums and prescription drug costs and would be forced to pay out of pocket for preventive care," Kanner said. "(Ryan) didn't say that if he had his way, Medicare would be bankrupt in just four years, or that he would give $150 billion taxpayer dollars back to private insurance companies, which raises costs for everyone. He didn't say that they'd turn Medicare into a voucher system, ending the Medicare guarantee and raising costs by $6,400 a year for seniors. And he certainly didn't say that they'd do it all to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires."
read more here

This is from Bloomberg Business Week back in April, long before Romney decided that Ryan should be able to do what he wanted. After all, Romney fully supported Ryan's budget.

The Audacity of Paul Ryan
By Drew Armstrong and Heidi Przybyla
on April 06, 2011

Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, on Apr. 5 did something politicians seldom do: He stuck to principle. The fiscal conservative and Republican rising star stunned Washington with a 10-year budget blueprint that would shrink government, privatize the Medicare health program for seniors, turn Medicaid into a block grant to the states, and lower to 25 percent the top rate on corporate and individual taxes.

The plan would cut federal spending by $6 trillion over the next decade and slash the deficit to 2 percent of the economy by 2022, down from this year's 9 percent, without raising taxes. Among its weaknesses: overly optimistic assumptions, including that unemployment will be a mere 2.8 percent by 2021. By slashing money for food stamps, education, transportation, and scores of other programs, it's also politically untenable to Democrats. And despite the deep cuts, the House Republican plan would not balance the budget until 2040, largely because of offsetting tax cuts. Still, the scope of Ryan's proposal made Washington's nonstop bickering—and the threat of a government shutdown on Apr. 9 unless a deal is reached over funding levels for the next six months—seem small-bore by comparison.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is Ryan's call to convert Medicare, the $500 billion-a-year entitlement program and the biggest reason for mushrooming federal deficits, to a voucher-like system beginning in 2022. A week before Ryan presented his ideas, outside experts involved in the discussions said it was unclear whether the proposal would even cover Medicare. Along with Social Security, Medicare is a crucial part of the social safety net, one that politicians historically have been loath to tamper with, including President Barack Obama in his 2012 budget.

Democrats could hardly contain their glee, believing they'd been handed their talking points for next year's Presidential election. Politically, at least, party leaders see Ryan's proposal as a replay of former President George W. Bush's abortive 2005 plan to create Social Security private accounts, which they used to rally seniors and regain control of Congress in 2006. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) calls Ryan's budget a "thinly veiled attempt to dismantle Medicare" that pulls "the rug out from under seniors."

Republican ambivalence was evident. The party's House leaders, while endorsing Ryan's spending plan generally, largely omitted any references to the Medicare overhaul. The plan is a calculated risk for the GOP. While the proposal could alienate senior citizens in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Florida, and Iowa, reining in spending may help win over independent voters who gave Obama the edge in 2008. Opinion polls show that independents, who represent 29 percent of the electorate compared with 16 percent for senior citizens, now consider the deficit the most pressing issue facing the nation after jobs. Ryan's budget "is not going to have the repercussions everybody thinks it will," says former Representative Tom Davis (R-Va.), who led the House Republicans' election efforts from 1998 to 2002. "A lot of it is going to be messaging," he says, and "the election is ultimately going to be about swing voters."

Republican leaders may be betting that by embracing the broader anti-spending message of Ryan's plan without dwelling on the details, they can show voters a road map to growth that depends in part on paring the debt and controlling runaway entitlements. "This is not simply a deficit-hawk dynamic," says Republican pollster David Winston, who advises House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). "This is going back to Reagan and how you create jobs."

Ryan, 41, would essentially privatize Medicare by giving those over 65, beginning in the year 2022, about $8,000 to spend on private insurance that would replace the government program. Seniors would shop for subsidized coverage in an "exchange" where the government would approve insurance companies' offerings, says Conor Sweeney, a spokesman for Ryan. The plans would compete for seniors' business, and the subsidies would be based in part on income levels. The plan would also gradually raise the eligibility age to 67 by 2033.
read more here

In other words, companies win and seniors lose. Top all of that off with cuts to the VA and seniors I talk to are screaming because no politician is telling them what is really going on.

Congress has not come up with one plan for putting people back to work but then they turn around and point fingers at everyone else. They want their jobs back, well so do we but while they let us suffer all they could talk about was the deficit. They tell us we shouldn't pass on the debt to our kids but never once mention our kids are suffering right now!

'Socialized' or Not, We Can Learn from the VA

So why then did Republicans vote for Paul Ryan's budget when it cut the VA by $11 billion dollars when wounded veterans need it to be increased?

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) seemed to address that frustration indirectly on Thursday as he praised Ryan for putting forward a budget that represents a "real vision of what we were to do if we get more control here in this town."

This group along with Democrats voted against Paul Ryan's budget that cuts the VA

Republicans voting against the Ryan budget were Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Joe Barton (Texas), John Duncan Jr. (Tenn.), Chris Gibson (N.Y.), Tim Huelskamp (Kan.), Walter Jones (N.C.), David McKinley (W.Va.), Todd Platts (Pa.), Denny Rehberg (Mont.) and Ed Whitfield (Ky.).

'Socialized' or Not, We Can Learn from the VA
by Arthur L. Kellermann
The Rand Blog
August 8, 2012

In a recent post on the New York Times' Economix blog, Princeton economics professor Uwe E. Reinhardt addresses the common characterization of the British health care system as "socialized medicine." The label is most often used pejoratively in the United States to suggest that if anything resembling Great Britain's National Health System (NHS) were adopted in the U.S., it would invariably deliver low-quality health care and produce poor health outcomes.

Ironically, Reinhardt notes, the U.S. already has a close cousin to the NHS within our borders. It's the national network of VA Hospitals, clinics and skilled nursing facilities operated by our Veterans Healthcare Administration, part of the Department of Veterans Affairs. By almost every measure, the VA is recognized as delivering consistently high-quality care to its patients.

Among the evidence Reinhardt cites is an "eye-opening" (his words) 2004 RAND study from in the Annals of Internal Medicine that examined the quality of VA care, comparing the medical records of VA patients with a national sample and evaluating how effectively health care is delivered to each group (see a summary of that study).

RAND's study, led by Dr. Steven Asch, found that the VA system delivered higher-quality care than the national sample of private hospitals on all measures except acute care (on which the two samples performed comparably). In nearly every other respect, VA patients received consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and access to follow-up.
read more here

VA reviewing medications at Lincoln Community Based Outpatient Clinic

Healthcare Inspection
Review of a Patient’s Medication Management
Lincoln Community Based Outpatient Clinic Lincoln, Nebraska
August 10, 2012

Executive Summary
The VA Office of Inspector General Office of Healthcare Inspections conducted a review of the medication management provided for a patient who received health care and prescriptions at the Lincoln Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) of the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Healthcare System. The patient died unexpectedly, and a medical examiner determined the patient’s cause of death was accidental multidrug toxicity. The purpose of this review was to determine if the patient received appropriate medication management.

The patient had a complex medical and mental health history, which included acute and chronic pain. He was well known to CBOC staff; from 2004 through February 2012, he received MH, primary care, and/or pharmacy services at least every 30 days at the CBOC.

A psychiatrist treated the patient and prescribed medications to address his mental health needs. A physician assistant treated the patient and prescribed medications to address his other acute and chronic conditions. CBOC providers prescribed a number of medications that had the potential for adverse interactions. The patient’s medication regimen remained essentially the same for several years prior to his death. Providers performed medication reconciliations, (reviews of active VA and non-VA medications), and monitored the patient’s compliance with his medication regimen.

Providers, pharmacists, and pharmacy software identified potential adverse medication interactions (low blood pressure, elevated potassium, and electrocardiogram abnormalities). Providers monitored these potential adverse medication interactions by annual blood chemistries, drug levels, and electrocardiograms. Mental Health providers conducted assessments at an appropriate frequency, referred the patient to pain management clinic services, and monitored his prescribed opioid use closely. CBOC providers managed the patient’s medication management appropriately. We made no recommendations. read report here

This is what CNN thinks is the biggest problem with Romney picking Ryan?

This is what CNN thinks is the biggest problem with Romney picking Ryan

But a serious downside to a Romney-Ryan ticket may be Ryan's specific policy ideas. Widely lauded in conservative circles, Ryan's budget plan will become front and center in the campaign. This is especially true for the fundamental restructuring of Medicare as proposed in the plan. Medicare and Social Security are typically viewed as the "third rail" of American politics, and presidential candidates have historically shied away from proposing sweeping changes to these programs.

They didn't seem to think that cutting the VA budget or selling it off to private for profit companies was a big deal. Do they even know about this? They talk about Ryan's budget but didn't seem interested in what the rest of his plan has in it.

If you want to know why CNN Hit 20-Year Weekday Primetime Low I just may be one example of why that happened. There are millions of Americans just like me.

CNN joined in the 24/7 coverage of politics and dropped everything else Americans care about. That isn't the only problem. They failed to actually report on the rest of the story when they covered politicians.

When Mitch McConnell and the Republicans became the party in charge of the congress, he didn't say their number one job was to put Americans back to work. He said their job was to make President Obama a one term president. Then they began to take the steps to do it.

The rest of the country had to pay for their plan to work. If they fixed anything, it wouldn't be in their best interest but they had to act as if they were doing something to earn their pay checks and their own insurance coverage. So they went after the deficit they had been silent about every year before.

Most of us remember the fact two wars were never in the budget but were put on the charge card with no plans on how to ever pay for them. The fact that billions were unaccounted for didn't matter before.

This didn't matter either.

Iraq Banks Billions in Surpluses, GAO Says The United States has appropriated about $48 billion for Iraqi reconstruction since 2003 and has committed all but about $6 billion.

They wanted to end the Affordable Care Act, they dubbed "Obamacare" and not fix what they thought was wrong with it. They took the easy way out and said just kill it. While this may have "fired up their base" it would have left millions right back where they were with no way to pay for a doctor visit and adult kids without any insurance up to 26.

They complained about the unemployment rate as millions of people were out of work and then made it worse by saying they had to cut the deficit and laid off public employees. They didn't say their number one job was to take care of veterans even though every day we saw more and more of them suffering without getting the care they not only needed, but earned when they lived up to their promise to defend this nation with their lives. There is a very long list of things they didn't say was their job and veterans ended up suffering for all of what they didn't want to do.

Veterans usually go into public service. It is in their blood to want to be of service to this country. They become police officers, firefighters and emergency responders. They go into healthcare and they become teachers. They go into public service working for their cities and towns to make them better. What happened? A lot of them lost their jobs with the budget cuts but CNN didn't seem to think any of this was important to mention. If they mentioned it at all, I missed it and so did most Americans.

They didn't seem interested in the fact that National Guards and Reservists on repeated deployments were coming back home with no jobs and no healthcare since they are not covered unless they are deployed and their families are not covered so if they get sick, they are on their own.

FOX Orlando

During the time that Marine Cpl. Adam Byler spent his 8 months in Afghanistan, his little girl, Adalynn, was born. When he recently came back home, it was love at first sight.

Adalynn Byler was pronounced on Monday evening and was on support in order to allow organ transplant teams to be set up. Her family was very generous in allowing other families to have their prayers/wishes/dreams answered. There are three lives whose futures changed on Tuesday by the forward and outward thinking of the Byler family.

But this happens all the time. Instead of CNN covering what is happening to so many military families and veterans, they just put on politicians from both parties to make whatever claims they want to make. Some political coverage is necessary but not as much as they decided to do especially when troops were being killed overseas and veterans right here were suffering, waiting for care they were promised.

The only good thing to come out of all of this is there is finally some incentive to hire veterans and companies are taking advantage of it. The unemployment rate for veterans has gone down. It could have gone down a lot lower if cable news stations devoted time to covering them all along.

When I go to events, there is always someone with a political point of view, but the majority of the veterans I am with are talking about their lives and what is going on with them as veterans and their kids serving today.

I don't watch CNN much anymore while I gave up on FOX cable news and MSNBC a very long time ago. They act as if politics are all that matters but most of us are fed up with that topic being covered most of the time. Oh, sorry I almost forgot that Anderson Cooper on CNN covers Syria a lot too.

UPDATE

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH PICKING RYAN IS HIS BUDGET THAT CUTS THE VA WHEN VETERANS NEED IT THE MOST!

Veterans rally, call for more oversight

Veterans rally, call for more oversight
August 09 2012 LITTLE ROCK (AP)

Arkansas veterans rallied at the state Capitol on Thursday and called for more oversight of the agency that assists them after problems that include thousands of dollars of illegally collected fees and a report detailing $10 million in repairs that the Little Rock Veterans Home needs.

The group of veterans called for the improvements to the state Department of Veterans Affairs during an hour-long rally on the Capitol steps. Gov. Mike Beebe in May asked the department's director to retire over the department illegally collecting more than $580,000 in fees and has used money from the state's surplus to repay the veterans who were charged.

The department in June announced that the Little Rock Veterans Home would close as soon as its residents were moved to other approved facilities of their choosing. Veterans at the rally complained that years of neglect led to the facility's deterioration.

The Arkansas Building Authority earlier this week said it would take $10 million to bring the building up to state building and health codes.

"Our troops deserve a better place to fight their final battle," James Scholz, an Army veteran who lives in Little Rock, told the crowd.
read more here

Therapy at Roseburg VA helps veterans suffering from PTSD

Therapy at Roseburg VA helps veterans suffering from PTSD
Inka Bajandas
The News-Review
August 5, 2012

Gaila Lovelady was a teenager learning to be an Air Force jet engine mechanic when she accepted a ride home from her teacher.

Instead of taking her home, he drove in the opposite direction, stopped the car and raped her.

It happened 33 years ago, but Lovelady was haunted by painful memories that were debilitating and led her to abuse drugs. Now 50 and living in Crescent City, Calif., she never made peace with the trauma until recently.

“You wouldn't believe the parts of my life that were affected by it,” she said.

Lovelady found relief after taking part in a therapy program at the Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center that hones in on a single traumatic event and forces veterans to relive the experience.

The therapy had a powerful affect on her, Lovelady said.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she said. “It makes you think of different ways to look at your trauma. It makes you OK with your trauma.”

Lovelady and other veterans learned to cope with traumatic experiences through cognitive processing therapy, said Bryan Nestripke, clinical director of post-traumatic stress disorder programs at the Roseburg VA.

The hospital started offering the therapy, which typically lasts 12 sessions, last year, and veterans are taking advantage of the service even more this year, he said.

Cognitive processing therapy helps veterans face their traumas head-on, said Kathryn Dailey, a licensed clinical social worker who offers the therapy at the Roseburg VA.

The therapy forces patients to confront their memories, she said.
read more here

VA chief asked to stop reprisals against doctor working on PTSD

VA chief asked to stop reprisals against doctor
12:32 AM, Aug 2, 2012
Written by
William H. McMichael
The News Journal

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki needs to take “immediate action” to end what a union claims are continued reprisals against a Wilmington VA Medical Center psychologist who testified before Congress last fall about understaffing and questionable accounting.

The charges, levied by the American Federation of Government Employees, are this: Michelle Washington had her job performance appraisal lowered, job duties altered and job title changed as a result of her Nov. 30 appearance at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing in Washington.

The Wilmington facility declines to publicly discuss Washington’s situation, citing employee privacy rights.

The union’s national secretary-treasurer wants a face-to-face discussion with Shinseki.
read more here

Maine VA employee suspected in murder-suicide

Former Jacksonville resident killed girlfriend, then himself, Maine State Police say
Posted: July 29, 2012
By Associated Press

HAMPDEN, Maine — Maine State Police identified the man who shot his girlfriend and then killed himself at a Hampden house where a state police SWAT team had assembled.

The shooter was identified Saturday as 53-year-old Lawrence Beaute, who had lived in Jacksonville.

Police say Beaute was a medical technician at a Veterans Affairs facility in Bangor. read more here

Overwhelmed VA didn't happen overnight

UPDATE

VA secretary vs. Obama and his lousy record on vets
By Jennifer Rubin
We noted yesterday that the president’s speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention was promptly undercut by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. He wasn’t the only Cabinet member to contradict the president.
click link for more

Overwhelmed VA didn't happen overnight
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
July 27, 2012

If you read this blog often you know I am far from happy with what has been going on with our veterans. I swear, if the general public knew half of what is really going on they would be screaming at every member of congress they elected since 2001!

The fact that two wars, Afghanistan and then Iraq, were never in the budget, or paid for until President Obama included them was a glaring indication of how little these wars mattered to the Congress. Everything was done with supplemental requests and we heard members of Congress tell the American public how important they were to be worth the risk to the men and women sent to fight in them and risk being killed or wounded for.

With all the talk about what a mess the VA is in, it is a good time to reflect on how it got as bad as it is. The bottom line is, it took Congress and two other Presidents to get things as bad as they are an another President trying to get something done with a Congress that won't do much at all. Not that President Obama is pushing as hard as he can to catch up but at least he's trying.

“The system is going to be overwhelmed,” Panetta said. “Let’s not kid ourselves. It’s already overwhelmed.”

Panetta, Shinseki acknowledge frustration in streamling military health care
Published: July 26

Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki acknowledged Wednesday that they have been frustrated by departmental bureaucracy in their attempts to streamline military health care for severely wounded service members.

At a rare joint appearance before the House Armed Services and House Veterans Affairs committees, the secretaries pointed to what they called unprecedented cooperation between their two departments in battling some of their most pressing problems, including the high rate of military suicide and the huge backlog of disability claims.

But they have been unable to consolidate separate VA and Department of Defense programs to coordinate the long-term recovery of seriously wounded service members, despite warnings from the Government Accountability Office that the proliferation of programs might increase red tape.

“Secretary Shinseki and I share the same frustration,” Panetta said in response to questioning from Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) “We’ve been working on this, and frankly, we’ve been pushing, to try to say why can’t we get faster results, why can’t we get this done on a faster track.

“Bottom line is, frankly, we’re just going to have to kick ass and try to make it happen, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Shinseki said the separate VA and defense programs “don’t quite harmonize” and that the issue remains under study, as it was last year. He said the departments hope to report back to Congress in several months on their efforts to eliminate duplication.

The Washington Post reported in November that despite the recommendations of the Dole-Shalala commission in 2007 to create a single point of contact to cut red tape for the most severely wounded service members, the Defense Department and the VA had created at least a dozen programs to coordinate care.
read more here

VA BUDGET FOR 2013

Major Appropriation Issues
Stewardship of Resources
 Supports management systems that ensure accountability, maximize efficiency and effectiveness, and eliminate waste while improving the delivery of high quality and timely benefits and services to Veterans.

Medical Care
 Secures timely, predictable funding for health care through 2014 with advance appropriations
 $1.352 billion (up $333 million) to further VA’s integrated plan to end Veteran homelessness, including $235 million for the Homeless Grants and Per Diem program to aid community organizations
 $6.2 billion (up $312 million) to expand inpatient, residential, and outpatient mental health programs
 $7.2 billion (up $550 million) to expand institutional and non- institutional long-term care services.
 $335 million (up $9 million) is for tele-home health to improve access to care
 $403 million (up $60 million) for the needs of women Veterans
 $3.3 billion (up $510 million) to meet the needs of over 610,000 Veterans returning from U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan

Veterans Job Corps
 A Presidential initiative of $1 billion over the next five years to establish a conservation program impacting up to 20,000 veterans to protect and rebuild America’s land and resources.

Benefits Claims Processing
$2.164 billion (up $145 million over 2012) to support improved benefits processing through increased staff, improved business processes, and information technology enhancements
Supports the completion of 1.4 million disability compensation and pension claims, a 36% increase over 2011
Provides funding to complete 4 million education claims, a 19% increase over 2011 National Cemetery Administration
 $258 million for operations and maintenance to ensure VA’s cemeteries are maintained as national shrines
 The budget provides funding to expand access to burial options for rural Veterans.

Information Technology
 80% of 2013 IT Budget supports direct delivery of medical care and benefits to Veterans
 Over $3.3 billion for a reliable and accessible IT infrastructure, a high-performing workforce, and modernized information systems for Veteran services and benefits
 $53 million for development and implementation of the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) initiative
 $169 million for integrated Electronic Healthcare Record (iEHR), a joint effort with DoD to share health information
 $128 million for paperless claims processing system VBMS Construction
 Supports four major medical facility projects already underway. Entitlement Benefits
 $76.3 billion for mandatory benefits, including compensation for Agent Orange presumptive conditions and Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits

The really interesting thing is what happened for the 2003 budget when troops had been in Afghanistan for a year when the budget was being calculated. Remember, budgets are done a year before by whatever President/Congress is in office.

Administration Announces FY 2003 Budget
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights
dated February 8, 2002

VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi announced details of President Bush’s proposed $58 billion VA budget, which recommends $25.5 billion for the VA health care system.
Other features of the proposed budget include:
An almost $366 million increase for pharmaceuticals, that would bring the total to $2.9 billion in 2003
$409 million for medical and prosthetics research, a $38 million increase from this year’s spending level
$537 million for construction and grants

The FY 2003 budget proposes to establish a $1,500 yearly deductible for medical services for higher income, non-service-connected veterans. This would not be a standard deductible that must be paid upfront. The veteran would be charged 45 percent of VA’s "reasonable charges" each time care is provided until the $1,500 annual ceiling for deductible expenses is reached.

If the veteran has third-party health insurance, VA would bill the insurance company first, for the full cost of care. Payments from the insurance companies would be applied to the deductible amount owed by the veteran.

Medication copayments would not count toward the deductible amount, but would be charged at the existing rate of $7 for each 30-day prescription. Deductible charges would not be made for visits for preventive care only. After the $1,500 deductible limit is met, the veteran would then pay the normal copayments that are charged for outpatient and inpatient care.

"This initiative denies care to no one. It does ask those veterans who have the means and who incurred no disabilities on active duty, to pay a larger portion of their health care," Secretary Principi said. "That seems fair to me and allows VA to provide the best care possible to our higher priority veterans."

Listen to this hearing on the 2003 Budget
"208 days for claims to be processed." Senator Nelson Rockefeller.


By 2007 the VA was in such a mess that this happened.

U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson Quits
By Neil Roland
July 17, 2007
(Bloomberg)

Jim Nicholson, the U.S. secretary of veterans affairs, will resign by Oct. 1 after heading a health- care network that is sagging under the weight of returning combatants from Iraq and Afghanistan.

``I feel it is time for me to get back into business, while I still can,'' Nicholson, a member of President George W. Bush's cabinet, said in an e-mailed Veterans Affairs Department statement.

Nicholson, 69, who served in Vietnam, has headed the $77 billion Veterans Affairs Department since February 2005, a month after Bush's second term began. He was U.S. ambassador to the Vatican during Bush's first term, and before that was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2000. In the private sector, he had run a residential development and construction company.

The VA's network of 1,400 medical centers, clinics and nursing homes has been criticized by Democratic lawmakers who said last month it hasn't done enough to care for 263,000 returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

Had Congress actually kept up with funding for what was needed, the veterans would not be suffering the way they are now.

Senate Committee Veterans Affairs
Veterans' Hospitals Consolidation and Closure
September 11, 2003

Witnesses testified about a proposal to scale back, consolidate or close selected Veterans' Administration health care facilities.

The other issue here is that while the VA budget during the Bush Administration was increasing disabled veterans from 2001 when troops were sent into Afghanistan and 2003 when more were added from Iraq, the VA was never fully funded to be ahead of the influx of more wounded coming home.

President Bush's first budget was not for 2001 when he was inaugurated. His first budget took affect in 2002 after troops went into Afghanistan.

That is the biggest thing that keeps getting missed in all of this. President Obama has been slammed lately primarily by the people who caused the problem in the first place,,,,Congress.

As you can see with veterans from two wars getting wounded, surviving at a higher percentage than ever before, along with Vietnam Veterans finally having the ability to go to the VA with Agent Orange and PTSD claims, Congress didn't keep up with the money needed to do it.

Now think of this.

2001 President Clinton's Budget (Bush's First term)
VA's 2001 budget would provide $48 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2000.

2002 President Bush's Budget

The 2002 budget provides $23,378 million in discretionary funding for veterans health, benefits, and other services, including $23,998 million in gross discretionary budget authority and $620 million in anticipated discretionary medical collections.
This funding level recognizes that an estimated $235 million of current medical care liabilities will shift to the Department of Defense due to new benefits available to military retirees over age 64.

Last year, VA treated 1.4 million more veterans with 20,000 fewer employees than in 1996," said Principi. January 17, 2003

2003 President Bush's Budget
2004 President Bush's Budget
2004 Budget includes a total of $63.6 billion for VA -- $30.2 billion in discretionary funding (mostly for health care) and $33.4 billion for VA-administered entitlement programs (mostly disability compensation and pensions). The budget includes $225 million in new construction funding for VA's nationwide infrastructure initiative (CARES) to ensure that VA can put services where veterans live.

2005 President Bush's Budget
2006 President Bush's Budget
2007 President Bush's Budget
2008 President Bush's Budget
2009 President Bush's Budget (Obama's first term)

2009: $97.7 billion (total including collections) -- $50.4 billion in discretionary funding (including collections, not including ARRA funds) and $47.3 billion in mandatory funding

2010 President Obama's Budget
2010 Budget: $112.8 billion (total including collections) – $55.9 billion in discretionary funding (including collections) and $56.9 billion in mandatory funding

2011 President Obama's Budget

Department of Veterans Affairs Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2011 and Fiscal Year 2012.
The President has requested a budget for VA of $125 billion, including a total discretionary resource request of $60.3 billion. VA medical care represents 86 percent of the total discretionary request. For fiscal year 2011, the Administration is requesting $51.5 billion in resources for VA medical care. Appropriated resources for medical care for fiscal year 2011 have already been provided in last year’s Consolidated Appropriations Act. This funding level is an increase of $4.1 billion, or 8.6 percent over fiscal year 2010 levels.

2012 President Obama's Budget

This gives you some idea of what the media consistently fails to do. Remind people that the problems with the VA didn't start this year. They start when there is a failure to plan ahead.

Biden escorts media out to talk to veterans openly

In the article Veterans appreciate Biden’s visit … and wardrobe on Las Vegas Sun, two veterans had a lot to say about PTSD, suicide and what they came home to.

DeCaprio, a 64-year-old Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after he saw an unarmed Vietnamese child shot to death. He was turned down 25 years ago when he asked for benefits related to his trauma, and he posed the first question to Biden: Why do so many veterans have to hire attorneys to win access to benefits?

DeCaprio said Biden pulled up a chair and sat down right in front of him to directly answer the question.

“He said it himself. A lot of the veterans from Vietnam fell through the cracks, the country turned its back on us,” said DeCaprio, who said some people spat on him when he first came back to the United States after the war. “I had to prove that a specific incident occurred for them to acknowledge that I had PTSD. (Biden) said today it is much easier to receive benefits related to PTSD. He did say that they need more people in the Veterans Administration to work on cases.”

Andrew Rocco, 65, also served in Vietnam and said he suffered from psychological and physical health problems from injuries, trauma and exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant the military used to clear trees and brush from the Vietnam countryside. Agent Orange led to birth defects in the Vietnamese population, and nerve, digestive, skin and respiratory disorders to members of the armed forces.

Rocco said he has attempted suicide twice and has fought for years to get the benefits to which he feels entitled. U.S. VETS has provided Rocco with housing, food and counseling.

“My message to the government for us, and those coming back now, is: Be responsible for the people, for those coming back and those left behind,” said Rocco, who still wears his original dog tags around his neck.

DeCaprio and Rocco are supporters of President Barack Obama and liberals, but even some conservatives in the room appreciated the vice president’s visit.

“I won’t vote for (Obama and Biden), I’ll vote for (Mitt) Romney. I think Obama has done right by veterans, but I’m against his economic policies, taxing people to death, spreading the wealth,” said Marine veteran Damon D’Amico, 51. “What I really appreciated, though, was that the vice president told us, ‘Don’t be scared to ask for help. You deserve it.’ The whole thing made me feel good.”

D’Amico added that he supported the Obama administration’s efforts on behalf of veterans, such as allowing those returning from active duty to obtain professional licenses — for electrical engineering for example — more easily.
(click above link for more.)

Vietnam Veteran hung flag upside down over "Obamacare"

The Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act was legal and the government could impose fines for people able to buy health insurance but refused to do it. This law says everyone has to be covered or pay a fine. Poor people with no means to pay for insurance will be covered much like Medicaid covered some. Adult children under 26 are able to be on their parents plans. No one will be turned down for coverage because they were already sick (preexisting) or cut off because they got sick.

These things happened and sent families into crisis after crisis over health insurance issues that were unfair. While some healthy people today decide to not buy insurance, they never stop to think who will pay for them if they end up with a very expensive illness, like cancer, in the future. Our healthcare is not broken but paying for it has been making people "sick" trying to figure out how to take care of themselves.

This whole debate has been hyped to death so much so that a Vietnam Veteran decided to hang his American Flag upside down over this issue but not for the other ruling the Supreme Court came out with the same day saying it was ok for someone to lie about being a war hero. They said Stolen Valor was unconstitutional and lying was covered under freedom of speech.

Looks like politicians have been practicing that right to perfection.

Local veteran explains why he hung flag upside down
GRAYSON COUNTY, TX -- Hundreds of people across the nation were outraged when the supreme court upheld President Barack Obama's health care law. One Sherman man showed his disapproval with a controversial action that met with disapproval of it's own. Jul 9, 2012
Reporter: Kristen Shanahan

GRAYSON COUNTY, TX -- Hundreds of people across the nation were outraged when the supreme court upheld President Barack Obama's health care law. One Sherman man showed his disapproval with a controversial action that met with disapproval of it's own.

A Veteran of the Armed Services, Tim Deater, says he was so upset when he saw a flag flying upside down he wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. Bill Cowan says he did hang up the flag with the union down for more than a week and he wants people to know why.

Bill Cowan, a Vietnam Veteran, says he hung the American Flag upside down June 28th when the high court upheld President Obama's health care overhaul. A law that affects the way americans receive and pay for their personal medical care.
read more here

We have a Rottweiler/Hound and he will go into contortions just to bite his own tail. He walks sideways just to keep it in his mouth. For some reason he doesn't seem to understand it is attached to him. A lot of people in this country are doing the same thing because instead of hearing truth about things that really do effect their lives, they are lied into forgetting about common sense.

Medicare, Medicaid and the VA are "socialized" medical coverage programs. They are all paid for by taxpayers. In the case of the VA, it was also paid for by the men and women after they served this country putting their lives on the line and getting wounded for it, or at least were willing to do it but cannot afford private insurance and have no other way to take care of their health.

Has anyone stopped to think about them? Ever wonder what all the layoffs did to the veterans who would normally go to a civilian doctor? Ever wonder if disabled veterans would have to wait so long to see a doctor if non-disabled veterans were able to go someplace else?

VA mental healthcare hit or miss

You would think that every veteran is treated the same way, have the same care, but they don't. While they leave every part of this nation to serve as a whole in the military, they return to every part of this nation with some states willing to step up and other states not giving a damn.

I stopped watching cable news because it seems all they want to talk about are politics and celebrities. I keep hearing some folks talk about the deficit. They don't want to "pass on our debt to our kids" as if that really means anything. None of them mention the debt we already owed to our grandparents, parents, siblings and children when they were willing to step up and risk their lives for this country.

It is appalling! I read their stories from all over the country while most people only get their news from cable. They have no idea what's going on or how much our veterans are suffering, waiting and wondering when they will matter enough for someone to notice and do something about it.

Here's a thought. Romney and Obama want the job of Commander-in-Chief. They want the veterans' votes. Military comes in at 88% in a poll on Stars and Stripes. (Politicians are 11%) How about the next time politicians are invited onto some of these news shows, they are actually asked questions that have to do with our military and veterans?

They get away with just saying they value veterans because the reporters don't have a clue what their record really is. It is how John McCain got away with voting against them for so long.

New law for mental health care hit-or-miss
Some counties doing OK; others face financial pinch
Jun. 15, 2012
Written by
TONY LEYS
CANTRIL, IA. — It’s hard to predict if the state’s attempt to reorganize its mental health care system will bring Danny Hughes the help he needs.

Once a month, he drives 45 minutes to a Veterans Affairs clinic in Ottumwa, where he can talk about the anxiety and depression caused by his Vietnam War service and deepened by the death of his wife, Victoria, last year. VA staff members there can also adjust the medicine he takes for post-traumatic stress disorder.

But he wants to see them more often, and he wishes there was a counselor he could call at night, when he hears the voices of his wife and his Army buddies hollering for help. Night is also when he catches himself pondering suicide.

“I’m having a heck of a time. I’m having a bad time of it,” said Hughes, 63. “If I had someone around here who I could call and get to them fairly quick … that would be awesome.”

The VA would pay for the Army veteran to seek assistance from a private counselor near his home — but there aren’t any. Cantril is in Van Buren County, a rural area without a single mental health provider. On most days, there are no psychiatrists, psychologists or mental health counselors of any stripe working in the southeast Iowa county.
read more here

Military women hold a dim view of VA facilities

Inequities Plague Female Veterans
By Eve Harris
By State of Health Correspondent
June 13, 2012


California is home to 167,000 women veterans — the largest group in the nation. More than nine percent of veterans in California are women, and health care is a top priority for them, according to the results of a survey released last month.

Nationally, the number of women vets using Veterans Health Administration (VA) services has nearly doubled (PDF) in the past decade, and VA hospitals and clinics have scrambled to meet the needs of their new patients.

Two state agencies — California’s Commission on the Status of Women and the California Department of Veterans Affairs – commissioned the survey of more than 900 women veterans in California about gaps they perceived in their benefits. California women veterans and their advocates say that women hold a dim view of VA facilities as unfriendly, male-dominated institutions.
read more here

VA now studying black women to prevent veteran suicides?

When will they ever learn?
by
Chaplain Kathie
June 13, 2012
First, ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR MINDS? Did they think this would get them more kudos than add to the miserable disaster? Next, the findings of support and encouragement were already known when the Disabled American Veterans commissioned this study going back to 1978!

Yet now they waste more time studying something experts already knew.

Are black women key to easing military suicides?
By Stephanie Czekalinski
National Journal

Black women have the lowest rates of suicide in the country, and although it’s not completely understood why, Veterans Affairs officials hope to re-create elements of black female culture that may help stop military veterans from killing themselves.

Women - particularly black women - provide each other social support and encouragement categorized by the opportunity to speak honestly with their peers, said Jan Kemp, mental health director for suicide prevention at the VA.

“The sense of community among themselves, and the ... built-in support that they get from each other is something we’re paying a lot of attention to, and trying to find ways to emulate,” Kemp said. “I think often that veterans and men don’t have that same sort of personal support, and we have to build that for them,” she said.

In general, white men are more likely to commit suicide than people in other groups. The suicide rate among white men was 25.96 per 100,000 from 2005 to 2009, according to the Centerns for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, the rate for black women was less than three suicides per 100,000. Government data for suicide deaths among military personnel is not available by race.

Combine that with the stress that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put on troops, and the risk of suicide increases. “We’re working with the highest-risk group in the nation,” Kemp said.

Stories abound of vets dying at their own hands after slipping through the cracks in the care network or not seeking help because of the stigma surrounding mental health issues.
read more here

But this could be the the worst news coming out of this article.

The VA launched its suicide-prevention program in earnest in 2007, Kemp said. Since then, the crisis line has received more than 600,000 calls and 50,000 contacts via computer chat.

For all the money being spent in the DOD and the VA treating PTSD, including the pure BS of changing the title of what they have from PTSD to PTSI, topped off by the military's use of the failed "Resiliency Training" we have the outcome of increased military suicides, attempted suicides along with veterans committing suicide topped off with the much overlooked fact that if they are discharged by the military, they are not counted and if they are not in the VA system, they are not counted. Now consider another overlooked fact. No one is counting the deaths from suicide by vehicular causes or overdoses of medications because these can be also considered accidents.

As it is almost one a day active duty service member and 18 veterans a day committing suicide no one is holding anyone accountable for any of this. Congress keeps holding the same hearings, asking the same questions and government keeps pushing what has already been proven to be a failure. When will they ever learn?

When it comes to what they point to as success, like the suicide prevention hotline, it has been an accident waiting to happen that has resulted in so many in crisis they feel so hopeless suicide seems to be the only way out!

Ohio vets say added VA staffing too low for mental healthcare

Ohio vets say added VA staffing 
too low
As more war veterans seek help, Dayton VA to get only 2 of 14 in Ohio.
By John Nolan, Staff Writer
8:02 PM Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ decision to add 14 mental health professionals in Ohio — including two at the Dayton facility — is being questioned by veterans and elected officials who say more help is needed.

“I would hope that it’s just the beginning,” said Huber Heights resident Justin Weis, a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war who has sought treatment for post-traumatic stress. disorder. Waits for service at the VA have been an issue.

Veterans across the country have complained of lengthy waits before getting mental health assessments and treatment. The VA’s inspector general issued a report earlier this year rejecting as “not accurate or reliable” the department’s claim that veterans who need first-time mental health evaluations are seen within 14 days.
read more here

Texas VA employees have target on their backs

SHAME ON TEXAS!

When they should be hiring more to take care of Texas veterans, they are doing this to the ones they have? How is this keeping the promise to veterans? Is this how they plan to put the VA into profit driven private hands?

PRESS RELEASE
June 11, 2012
Hundreds to Rally in Front of Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) Headquarters to Protest Discriminatory Practices Against VA Employees

ARLINGTON, Texas
PRNewswire via COMTEX

Veterans and other groups say veterans care is jeopardized by downgrade of critical medical center support staff

Hundreds of Veterans Affairs workers, members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), plan to rally in front of the VISN Headquarters, Wednesday, June 13 at 11:00 a.m. The activists, from health care facilities in more than 4 states, will gather at 2301 East Lamar Blvd., Suite 650, Arlington, Texas to protest what they call unfounded and arbitrary position downgrades of patient support assistants, medical record clerks, transportation assistants and others providing vital support services within the agency. The group says the downgrades are hurting veterans' care. Many of those protesting are themselves veterans.

"VA employees have a target on their back," said AFGE National Vice President Roy Flores and President of the largest VA Local in Dallas, Texas, Donald Burrell. "The agency has spent the past two years devastating the lives of modest wage earners who play a crucial role in supporting medical center functions within the VA."

AFGE is demanding that a moratorium be imposed on the lowering of these critical support positions. The agency has been unable to demonstrate that the lowest paid segment of the VA workforce should be the sole target of classification reviews and has yet to produce any evidence that the downgrades of VA support personnel will improve the functioning of the agency or its ability to serve veterans, according to AFGE.

"These heartless actions are a discriminatory assault on veterans and other VA employees at the bottom of the pay scale," said Burrell. "This nation's public servants and veterans deserve better."

read more here

Veterans should never be a political issue but should always be a national commitment! There is an interesting poll on the sidebar of this blog.
Who is better for veterans?
Democrats
8 (24%)
Republicans
10 (30%)
Neither one
15 (45%)
Vote on this poll
Votes so far: 33
Days left to vote: 18
So far neither party wins on this one!

OEF and OIF veterans not using free healthcare?

Like many veterans my husband and his Dad came home from serving the country and wanted that to be the end of war. His Dad didn't go to the VA after WWII because "that was for guys who needed it like amputees." His thought was that he could work, so he pushed past whatever problems he had. He had a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. My husband came home from Vietnam feeling the same way. Like his Dad, he earned a Bronze Star but there was no award for what else came home with him. He went to work just like all the others.

Now Vietnam veterans are finally seeking what they earned so many years ago. It is understandable how they feel considering the lack of support and information on turning to the VA for their healthcare. No excuses now with this generation of veterans living off of trilobites of data at their fingers reach. For these veterans there is information overload but much of it is useless. They don't know where to look.

When a benefit they earned by serving this country is not being used by all of them, it is not from lack of the veteran searching or even needing, but a lack of the VA fully adapting to keep them informed. It is also the failure of the VA when they do not publicize the things they do get right. This is one of them. Free healthcare for 5 years for them and their families.

I know it doesn't make it right when a claim is tied up and they have no income to support their families because of the enormous backlog but at least they can see a doctor while they fight to see the government honor their end of the deal with them. But a small medical issue today can turn into a huge one if not found early. They should all go!

Veterans passing up free health care
Thousands of uninsured Ohioans may qualify for VA coverage
By Cornelius Frolik, Staff Writer
Updated 12:22 AM Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Veterans who were recently discharged from the military after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are generally eligible for VA health care for a period of five years, while other veterans may be eligible based on service connection, their incomes or other criteria, Larson said.

About 52,000 military veterans in Ohio younger than 65 either do not have health insurance or are not enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care system, leaving many of them and their families with unmet medical needs or leading them to forgo care because of costs, according to new research examining census data and other studies.

Veterans without insurance may be unemployed, unable to afford private coverage or unaware of VA-care eligibility.

“There are a lot of options available to veterans concerning health care,” said Mike McKinney of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services.

“The vast majority of our veterans from the last 10 years should be covered,” McKinney said.

The Washington-based Urban Institute reported that one in 10 veterans in Ohio younger than 65 and an additional 35,000 military spouses and children — or about 7 percent of the total 504,855 military family members in Ohio — are uninsured. The report analyzed state survey data for 2009 and 2010.

Uninsured veterans typically have poor access to health care, and they are less likely than their insured counterparts to visit a doctor regularly and seek out important preventive care.

Military officials are urging veterans to explore their options with the VA health care system to determine whether it can serve their needs.
read more here