Judge calls hearing to ponder ordering VA to improve health care

[fed-up]

Source: Associated Press via SF Chronicle

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
Monday, March 3, 2008
(03-03) 16:50 PST San Francisco (AP) --

..snip

Two veteran advocacy groups sued the Bush administration last year, claiming that the VA failed to provide prompt disability benefits, failed to add staff to reduce wait times for medical care and failed to boost services for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The lawsuit comes amid intense political and public scrutiny of the VA and Pentagon following reports of shoddy outpatient care of injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and elsewhere. The Pentagon reports that suicides and suicide attempts continue to rise.
The veterans groups involved in the lawsuit are Veterans for Common Sense in Washington, which claims 11,500 members, and Santa Barbara-based Veterans United for Truth with 500 members.

U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti is scheduled to hear from dueling mental health experts during a weeklong hearing to determine if he should order the VA to immediately spend about $60 million to provide care to hundreds of thousands veterans they say have pending health claims.

..snip
U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Daniel Bensing echoed that theme by telling Conti that issuing such an order had the practical effect of putting the judge in charge of patient care. The veterans' demands are "unwarranted, unworkable and would do more harm than good."

..snip

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/03/state/n165013S91.DTL&type=health

[noel adamson]

1. Disband the VA, throw the bums that run it out in the street where they belong and...

...allow veterans to seek medical care where they wish at government expense and make the disability claims process fair and non-adversarial.