Bush Calls for Simplifying Military Disability System

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Bush Calls for Simplifying Military Disability System


By GINGER THOMPSON
Published: October 17, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — President Bush on Tuesday proposed a series of changes intended to streamline a military disability system that he said had fallen behind the times and had left too many disabled soldiers falling through the cracks.

The proposals, outlined in a document that Mr. Bush sent to Congress, would pull apart a convoluted system that gave both the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs authority over determining the level of benefits and care provided to injured soldiers, often pitting the two bureaucracies against each other and holding up services.

In an announcement from the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush said that, under his proposal, the agencies’ authorities would be separated. The Pentagon would have the authority to determine whether injured soldiers were fit to return to duty and would provide a pension to those who were considered unfit, based on their rank and years of service.

Soldiers determined to be permanently disabled would move into the V.A. system, and receive care and compensation based on their loss of earnings and the impact of their injuries on their quality of life.

“Medical advances have enabled battlefield medics and hospitals to provide our wounded warriors with care that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago,” Mr. Bush said. “Yet our system for managing this care has fallen behind. It’s an outdated system that needs to be changed.”

In an effort remove the stigma from soldiers who might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the president’s plan would allow all soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to seek evaluations for the disorder, without having to first prove they have cause for feeling stress.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/washington/17vets.html?ref=policy