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Tag(s): USA United States Of America; Veterans; Veterans Admin VA; Veterans Benefits; Veterans Handicapped; Veterans Iraq; Veterans Neglected
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March 23, 2007 at 23:55:02

Is the VA Really Supporting Our Troops?

by Robert Anchors Page 3 of 3 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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It is an often repeated statement that less than 10% of veterans appeal their decision therefore just getting the claim done by hook or crook has little negative impact on the agency in reporting its annual performance. Instead, VA policy makers boast about the number of claims completed, regardless of due process errors.

Individual veterans and Veterans Service Organizations as a whole should have no confidence in receiving a technically correct, legally accurate, and an equitable rating decision when the entire system contains institutionalized, unaddressed fundamental flaws in applying Due Process under law.

Conspiracy or disturbing Comedy of Errors?

Over the years older veterans have seen a disturbing Comedy of Errors perpetuated by the VA leading to needless deaths. And even though the VA hospital has cleaned up (remember Walter Reed is an Army Hospital) its act to become one of the best care givers in the nation it’s still impossible to make a good “second” first impression. So many of these vets will remain undeterred from their first impressions of the VA and every new report of “evil doings” at a VA hospital, even if isolated, will merely reinforce that bad first impression. Chalk this up to a disturbing Comedy of Errors.

However consider the charge of intentionally denying benefit claims.

Since the AFGE represents the (VA) employees that decide granting or denying a veterans’ benefit claim - that makes Joe Waldman’s letter the smoking gun. In the full transcript of Mr. Waldman’s letter to congress
he asserts that supervisors pressure their employees to close cases as quickly as possible. For every benefits case closed that VA office receives a “work credit”. These are received regardless of the job being done correctly or not. Employees obtaining a set level of “work credits” are rewarded by the VA in cash bonuses.
The same cash bonuses that actually encourage the denial of benefit claims for disabled vets by the unscrupulous on the VA payroll.

Then there is the Knight-Ridder story stating that thousands of vets have died while their cases were in appeals. That a few veterans where still waiting since WWII to get their benefits.

Considering the overwhelming case load of 400,000 unresolved claims, plus the 200,000 projected new claims by those retuning from Afghanistan/Iraq;is it really hard to imagine why some veterans believe the VA is simply waiting them out?

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3 comments

Sherwood Ross has worked as a publicist for Chicago; as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and workplace columnist for Reuters. He has also been a media consultant to colleges, law schools, labor unions, and to the editors of more than 100 national magazines. A civil rights activist, he was News Director for the National Urban League, a talk show host at WOL Radio, Washington, D.C., and holds an award for "best spot news coverage" for Chicago radio stations for civil rights reporting. He is t...

to see more of bio, click on member name
Sherwood RossSherwood Ross has worked as a publicist for Chicago; as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and workplace columnist for Reuters. He has also been a media consultant to colleges, law schools, labor unions, and to the editors of more than 100 national magazines. A civil rights activist, he was News Director for the National Urban League, a talk show host at WOL Radio, Washington, D.C., and holds an award for "best spot news coverage" for Chicago radio stations for civil rights reporting. He is t...

to see more of bio, click on member name

VA Treatment of Vets

This is ugly stuff indeed. The old saw, "justice delayed is justice denied" was never more applicable. Maybe activists should distribute handbills containing this information outside recruiting offices. Maybe the VA should create some activists of its own who will act to ensure justice is no longer delayed or denied.

Sherwood Ross

by Sherwood Ross (167 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 97 comments) on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 6:23:32 AM

Say it ain't so!
TheoSay it ain't so!

VA waiting for veterans to die? YES!!!

My dad died from yellow fever contacted during an Army building project, some 60 years ago. I was only 2 years old when he died. The action of the VA then is just as it is now. They just turned their backs on me. It is only the will to live that I survived a harsh childhood, sleeping in a house without heat, and going to bed hungry. Against my Mom's wishes, I joined the military. I have several service connected disabilities. The miner ones were granted. The heart condition and stroke (I am still confering with them about this, since 1998) were denied. At the moment, my claim (appeal) is still pending after more than two years. I know for sure I am not the only one with treatment like this from VA. A friend of mine died three months ago, waiting for VA to approve his claim for a service connected, low rated heart condition. What we have to be careful about is the loss of VA because it has been said that there would no longer be a VA when this admin. is finished. Say it ain't so!

by Theo (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 27 comments) on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 6:43:04 AM

The author lives in Eugene, OR. Interests include 'Group Psychotherapy' and 'Psychodrama'. She is also an RN. One 'Favorite Quote': 'Insanity is the exception in individuals. In groups, parties, peoples and times it is the rule.' ......Friedrich Nietzsche
Katrin R.The author lives in Eugene, OR. Interests include 'Group Psychotherapy' and 'Psychodrama'. She is also an RN. One 'Favorite Quote': 'Insanity is the exception in individuals. In groups, parties, peoples and times it is the rule.' ......Friedrich Nietzsche

What do I think?

Do I believe them? vs. who else? Of course I do, and if this is not evident, I don't know what is. They are sending severely injured vets back to Iraq, for God's sake. It's not only a matter of not caring about them, but an active wish and pursuit to get rid of them, or at least make sure they are too crazy to testify as witnesses, now that investigations are underway?

Sometimes, the more obvious things are, the less likely they are believed. And that is partially why it is done that way. I think people feel/think themselves too superior and/or intelligent to see the obvious. Like, they did not go to college to recognize the banal. Unless the cover-up is intelligently maneuvered, they believe it cannot be real. Same with when things when they are too serious to meet their idea of 'reality'.

'Delay, Deny, Hope that I die.'

by Katrin R. (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 514 comments) on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 12:55:53 AM