COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: Veterans
Wounded Iraq Vets Suing VA
Associated Press
July 23, 2007
WASHINGTON-
Frustrated by delays in health care, a coalition of injured Iraq war
veterans is accusing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of
breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental health
treatment.
The class-action lawsuit against the department, known as the VA and
headed by Jim Nicholson, set to be filed Monday in federal court in San
Francisco, seeks broad change in the agency as it struggles to meet
growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that
the VA has failed warriors on several fronts - from providing prompt
disability benefits, to adding staff to reduce wait times for medical
care to boosting services for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The lawsuit also accuses the VA of deliberately cheating some veterans
by allegedly working with the Pentagon to misclassify PTSD claims as
pre-existing personality disorders to avoid paying out benefits. The VA
and Pentagon have generally denied such charges.
VA spokesman Matt Smith said Monday he could not comment on a pending
lawsuit. But he said the agency is committed to meeting the special
needs of Iraq war veterans.
"Through outreach efforts, the VA ensures returning Global War on
Terror service members have access to the widely recognized quality
health care they have earned including services such as prosthetics or
mental health care," he said. "VA has also given priority handling to
their monetary disability benefit claims."
The lawsuit comes amid intense political and public scrutiny of the VA
and Pentagon following reports of shoddy outpatient care of injured
soldiers at the flagship U.S. military hospital in Washington the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center and elsewhere.
"Unless systemic and drastic measures are instituted immediately, the
costs to these veterans, their families, and our nation will be
incalculable, including broken families, a new generation of unemployed
and homeless veterans, increases in drug abuse and alcoholism, and
crushing burdens on the health care delivery system," the complaint
states.
It asks that a federal court order the VA to make immediate
improvements that would speed disability payments, ensure fairness in
awards and provide more complete access to mental health care.
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of