[Peace-discuss] military enlistment

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

This is a very valid reason why no one should enlist in the military. When 
injured they are abandoned.  We need to use this to prevent future enlistments.

doug  

VA Overhaul May Limit Vets' Access to Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 9:46 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senators on Thursday said they were worried that a major 
overhaul of the Veterans Affairs Department health care system would deprive 
some veterans of access to treatment.

``There's a great deal of skepticism in the veterans' community,'' said 
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., at a hearing.

But Dr. Robert Roswell, the VA's undersecretary for health, sought to assure 
the panel that proposals to close, consolidate or otherwise change the mission 
of VA health facilities would not disrupt the treatment of veterans. ``All 
care provided to veterans will continue throughout this process.''

The overhaul, initiated by VA Secretary Anthony Principi, is aimed at 
adjusting the VA health care system to meet modern realities -- that today's veterans 
are older and tend to live in Sunbelt states and that medical science has 
advanced to where more patients can be treated on an outpatient rather than 
inpatient basis.

``We're trying to provide 21st century veterans with 21st century medical 
care,'' he said.

The VA last year treated some 4 million patients at its 181 major health care 
delivery locations. Under a draft plan for a 20-year transformation of those 
facilities, some seven hospitals would close, new hospitals would open in Las 
Vegas and in Orlando, Fla., and other facilities would be assigned reduced or 
added medical missions.

Principi last December appointed a 16-member commission, headed by Everett 
Alvarez, Jr., to review the draft and make recommendations to him by the end of 
this year. Principi said that, after working with the commission, he would 
accept or reject their report in its entirety because ``I don't want to be in a 
position to politicize'' the issue.

But as with base closings, lawmakers don't want to see facilities in their 
states or districts shut down.

Specter acknowledged that one mental facility near Pittsburgh that is slated 
for closing is underused, but said there were ``very grave concerns'' whether 
the new health center to which the patients are to be moved will be completed 
before the old building is closed.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said veterans in Waco, site of another 
proposed closing, feared they would lose access to VA medical care. The draft 
plan, she said, ``neither enhances services nor wisely allocates resources.''

Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, the top Democrat on the committee and a 
presidential contender, said in a statement that the overhaul process ``seems to be 
lurching forward with little or no underpinning.'' He said he believed that ``we 
must slow down and approach this critical task with much more deliberation.''

The top lawmakers on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, chairman 
Christopher Smith, R-N.J., and Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., also wrote Alvarez recently 
saying one of their greatest concerns was whether the process adequately 
addressed such specialized VA programs as geriatrics, long-term care, mental health, 
substance abuse and homelessness.

Alvarez, who was the first American aviator shot down over North Vietnam and 
was a prisoner of war for 8 1/2 years, told the panel that his commission had 
made no final decisions yet and was currently visiting VA facilities around 
the country to get input from veterans and local communities.

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On the Net:

The Capital Assets Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES) Commission: 
http://www.va.gov/cares