Veterans Administration Not Prepared for Female Vets
The VA under the Bush administration is ineffectual, but this is no surprise since every department and agency now has been politicized by Bushites and managed by Bush loyalists.
Refusing to diagnose PTSD and instead calling it adjustment disorder in order not to pay benefits was the latest in a series of VA scandals.
Now the VA is not adequately prepared for female veterans. This Bushite agency has had five years to gear up for women vets, but then, as with the entire Bush administration, Iraq was supposed to be a cakewalk so why prepare.
McClatchy News reports: "Two nightmares haunt Robin Milonas.
" 'I was an outgoing, energetic, determined good soldier who wanted to make the Army a career,' said Milonas, of Puyallup, Wash., who just turned 50. 'Now I am broken.'
"Milonas is one of roughly 180,000 women who've been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. While they don't officially serve in combat, they have experienced life in a war zone where there are no front lines.
"And as they return home, they're increasingly turning to an already overtaxed Department of Veterans Affairs for help. Last year, the VA treated more than 255,000 female veterans. The number is expected to double within five years.VA officials say they're better prepared to handle female patients than they were several years ago. But they acknowledge "continual challenges" as they move to open the door to a man's world, where pap smears and mammograms could become as common as prostate exams.
"Others say the agency is far from prepared. And given the VA's chronic budget shortfalls and increasing demands from the rapidly growing number of male veterans, the task could be even harder than expected.
" 'They aren't ready,' said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said of VA officials. 'Absent a proactive, concerted effort and knowing their limited resources, they (VA officials) are struggling with so much this might get lost.'
"Murray, perhaps the leading VA critic on Capitol Hill, has introduced legislation that requires studying how serving in Iraq and Afghanistan has affected the physical, mental and reproductive health of women, and how the VA is dealing with their problems."
According to an AP article via Truthout the Bush administration plays a questionable gave with the VA budget: "The White House budget office, however, assumes that the veterans' medical services budget - up 83 percent since Bush took office and winning a big increase in Bush's proposed 2008 budget - can absorb a 2 percent cut the following year and remain essentially frozen for three years in a row after that.
" 'It's implausible,' Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said of the budget projections.
"The White House made virtually identical assumptions last year - a big increase in the first year of the budget and cuts for every year thereafter to veterans medical care. Now, the White House estimate for 2008 is more than $4 billion higher than Bush figured last year.
"And the VA has been known to get short-term estimates wrong as well. Two years ago, Congress had to pass an emergency $1.5 billion infusion for veterans health programs for 2005 and added $2.7 billion to Bush's request for 2006. The VA underestimated the number of veterans, including those from Iraq and Afghanistan, who were seeking care, as well as the cost of treatment and long-term care."
The Bush administration was unprepared for its over in 6 months, greeted with flowers fantasy that is the five year and counting Iraq debacle they created and their politicized VA was not ready either...not even after a half decade of Iraq veterans both male and female or eight years into the first decade of the 21st century. It's appalling.
Refusing to diagnose PTSD and instead calling it adjustment disorder in order not to pay benefits was the latest in a series of VA scandals.
Now the VA is not adequately prepared for female veterans. This Bushite agency has had five years to gear up for women vets, but then, as with the entire Bush administration, Iraq was supposed to be a cakewalk so why prepare.
McClatchy News reports: "Two nightmares haunt Robin Milonas.
While serving in Afghanistan in 2004 as an Army Reserve civil affairs officer, the former lieutenant colonel got lost in a minefield while leading a small convoy delivering school supplies to civilians. Even more troubling is the memory of a man who arrived at the main gate of Bagram Air Base carrying a young boy whose leg had been blown off by a land mine.
" 'I was an outgoing, energetic, determined good soldier who wanted to make the Army a career,' said Milonas, of Puyallup, Wash., who just turned 50. 'Now I am broken.'
"Milonas is one of roughly 180,000 women who've been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. While they don't officially serve in combat, they have experienced life in a war zone where there are no front lines.
"And as they return home, they're increasingly turning to an already overtaxed Department of Veterans Affairs for help. Last year, the VA treated more than 255,000 female veterans. The number is expected to double within five years.
"Others say the agency is far from prepared. And given the VA's chronic budget shortfalls and increasing demands from the rapidly growing number of male veterans, the task could be even harder than expected.
" 'They aren't ready,' said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said of VA officials. 'Absent a proactive, concerted effort and knowing their limited resources, they (VA officials) are struggling with so much this might get lost.'
"Murray, perhaps the leading VA critic on Capitol Hill, has introduced legislation that requires studying how serving in Iraq and Afghanistan has affected the physical, mental and reproductive health of women, and how the VA is dealing with their problems."
According to an AP article via Truthout the Bush administration plays a questionable gave with the VA budget: "The White House budget office, however, assumes that the veterans' medical services budget - up 83 percent since Bush took office and winning a big increase in Bush's proposed 2008 budget - can absorb a 2 percent cut the following year and remain essentially frozen for three years in a row after that.
" 'It's implausible,' Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said of the budget projections.
"The White House made virtually identical assumptions last year - a big increase in the first year of the budget and cuts for every year thereafter to veterans medical care. Now, the White House estimate for 2008 is more than $4 billion higher than Bush figured last year.
"And the VA has been known to get short-term estimates wrong as well. Two years ago, Congress had to pass an emergency $1.5 billion infusion for veterans health programs for 2005 and added $2.7 billion to Bush's request for 2006. The VA underestimated the number of veterans, including those from Iraq and Afghanistan, who were seeking care, as well as the cost of treatment and long-term care."
The Bush administration was unprepared for its over in 6 months, greeted with flowers fantasy that is the five year and counting Iraq debacle they created and their politicized VA was not ready either...not even after a half decade of Iraq veterans both male and female or eight years into the first decade of the 21st century. It's appalling.
Comments