Veterans Affairs

Keith Church left the Navy in 1974 after a two-year stint, worked for years as a maintenance mechanic and never considered asking for veterans benefits. But in December, Church, 54, was jobless, coping with health problems and on the brink of homelessness - "couch surfing" with friends, he says - when he turned to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for help. Within a few months, he moved into an apartment, thanks to a VA program that started in Maryland this year to help homeless veterans.

When Marine Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey returned from his tour of duty in Iraq, he looked like a kid who lucked out. No visible wounds. But looks aren't everything. He had nightmares and nausea, drank heavily and showed other signs of depression. He threw his dog tags at his sister and called himself a "murderer." He told his sister he had "a rope and tree picked out" behind the family home. Then, in June 2004, a few months after his return, he went to the basement of his parents' home in Belchertown, Mass.

WASHINGTON -- Federal investigators have documented almost 3,000 medical mistakes and accidents in less than two years at veterans hospitals around the country, and more than 700 patients have died in those cases, the Department of Veterans Affairs says in a new report.The accidents and deaths occurred from June 1997 to December 1998, in the first 19 months of a new policy that requires employees to report medical errors and "adverse events." Since then, the department has been getting such reports at a rate of more than 200 a month.

Tom Bratten, Maryland's new Secretary of Veterans Affairs, has a gripe about guys who fought in Vietnam and now use the war as an excuse for troubled lives. And he doesn't worry that some might view his remarks as insensitive."A lot of people who went to Vietnam were losers before Vietnam, were losers during Vietnam and will die losers," Bratten says.The outspoken 56-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran has been director of the Maryland Veterans Commission since 1993. Gov. Parris N. Glendening named him last week to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, an agency created by the legislature this year at Glendening's request to consolidate state services for veterans.

Protest budget cuts that threaten services our veterans needAs we approach Memorial Day, the day we set aside to honor our veterans, the budget Congress is preparing will apparently cut thousands of Veterans Affairs (VA) health-care jobs and eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars from other programs for veterans when the next fiscal year begins in October.Although Congress has added money to the president's proposed budget for veterans, the amount still falls far short of what is needed to provide quality health care.

WASHINGTON -- After a 20-month investigation, the panel that has led the chief congressional inquiry into the illnesses of Persian Gulf war veterans will ask that the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs be stripped of their authority over the issue.In its final report, the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight will say the congressional investigation showed that "a variety of toxic agents in the gulf war," including Iraqi chemical weapons and pesticides, were probably responsible for the health problems reported by thousands of veterans.

PERRY POINT, Md. -- At a time when the federal government is squeezing many social programs, the veterans medical center here, on a serene 400-acre campus on the Chesapeake Bay, has opened a new refuge for people like Stanford Avant.After his discharge from the Marine Corps, with which he served in Vietnam, Mr. Avant spent 25 tortured years "drinking and drugging," as he puts it, on the streets of Wilmington, Del.Now he is 46, and he has been at Perry Point since a sanctuary for homeless veterans opened here in September.

The records U.S. federal agencies relied upon to conclude that Persian Gulf war veterans are no sicker than the general population excluded thousands of veterans treated for illnesses by doctors at federal clinics and by private doctors paid by the government.The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' statistics also do not include other veterans who chose to go to private hospitals or doctors and pay for their own medical care.In an interview last week, Dr. Frances M. Murphy, who is responsible for the Veterans Affairs Department's program to treat gulf war veterans, said the diagnoses of veterans who were treated by clinics and private doctors, rather than at VA hospitals, were left out of the department's computer databases.

WASHINGTON -- As budget battles continue on Capitol Hill over the girth and role of the federal government, awed respect is in order for the long-standing ability of two government departments to elude scrutiny, let alone the spending reductions sweeping through Washington.They are the present and past of America's military establishment, the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, a symbiotic duo, with less than ever to do but more money than ever to do it.While Congress and the White House have set the rest of the federal government on a downward fiscal trajectory toward the balanced-budget goal of the year 2002, the spending plans for the two departments are pointed upward, a testimonial to their political untouchability.

WASHINGTON -- In often-poignant testimony, veterans -- from World War II as well as Desert Storm -- told Congress yesterday of being unwitting medical subjects for a military they said has since abandoned them.Speaking before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, they described numerous illnesses and other health problems that they blamed on secret experiments, preventive drugs or vaccines they were given, or exposure to environmental chemicals or other possible hazards.Moreover, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Keith Church left the Navy in 1974 after a two-year stint, worked for years as a maintenance mechanic and never considered asking for veterans benefits. But in December, Church, 54, was jobless, coping with health problems and on the brink of homelessness - "couch surfing" with friends, he says - when he turned to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for help. Within a few months, he moved into an apartment, thanks to a VA program that started in Maryland this year to help homeless veterans.

Maryland veterans who have been forced to travel long distances and wait for care at heavily used Veterans Affairs medical facilities in the state are going to get some relief. The department is planning two new outpatient clinics here - one at Fort Meade and another in northern Montgomery County. The Montgomery clinic will serve more than 4,000 veterans, while the Fort Meade facility will assist 2,500 who otherwise might have to travel to Baltimore, Perry Point or Washington for primary care, mental health services and other medical specialties.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown has been appointed co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team overseeing veterans policy, officials said yesterday. At the Agency Review Team for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown - an Iraq war veteran and 24-year member of the Army Reserves - will help formulate the incoming administration's policy goals regarding veterans. Brown will be working with Maryland Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, who is part of a team reviewing personnel and policies at the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development.

Oooops! When Congress and the White House put together the recent bipartisan $150 billion economic stimulus package, they raised the maximum mortgage limits in high-cost areas for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration. But lawmakers neglected to include a similar increase for the government's primary home purchase program for veterans -- VA-backed loans. While the limits of the other three programs now extend to $729,500 in the highest-cost areas -- at least through Dec. 31 -- VA loans remain capped at $417,000.

Arecent report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that while veterans constitute about 11 percent of the civilian population 18 and older, they represent about 26 percent of homeless people. That proportion is lower than in the 1990s, when veterans were an estimated one-third of the homeless population, but the findings are disturbing nonetheless. Veterans are more likely to be educated and employed and less likely to be poor than the general population. As more veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, the problem of homeless veterans is likely to get worse.

When Marine Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey returned from his tour of duty in Iraq, he looked like a kid who lucked out. No visible wounds. But looks aren't everything. He had nightmares and nausea, drank heavily and showed other signs of depression. He threw his dog tags at his sister and called himself a "murderer." He told his sister he had "a rope and tree picked out" behind the family home. Then, in June 2004, a few months after his return, he went to the basement of his parents' home in Belchertown, Mass.

Jim Nicholson's resignation last week after 2 1/2 years as secretary of veterans affairs was described as abrupt, but the wonder is that he lasted so long. A former real estate developer, Republican Party chairman and ambassador to the Vatican, Mr. Nicholson was overwhelmed by a hidebound bureaucracy unable to cope with the sheer size and complexity of its rapidly expanding client load. And he was no match for White House political bosses trying to hide the true cost of the Iraq war by shorting veterans' care.

WASHINGTON -- Moved by reports of shoddy outpatient conditions and tangled bureaucracy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other facilities, House lawmakers lined up yesterday to unanimously support a bill that promises to improve medical care for the nation's service members and veterans. The bipartisan measure, known as the Wounded Warriors Assistance Act, rocketed through the House of Representatives after its introduction two weeks ago. Of the 435 House members, 426 were on hand to support the bill, with some scrambling at the last minute to be counted in support of the troops.

CHICAGO -- When he was alive, the U.S. government had no trouble finding a place for Patrick Stewart, never mind his unconventional beliefs. It inducted him into the Army National Guard, issued him dog tags giving his religion as "Wiccan," and deployed him to Afghanistan. He died there in 2005 when Taliban forces shot down his helicopter. It was only later that Uncle Sam had second thoughts. Sergeant Stewart was buried in a veterans cemetery in Nevada, and his widow asked that his memorial plaque include the encircled five-pointed star of Wicca, a religion based on nature worship.

WASHINGTON -- With millions of seniors facing premium increases for their Medicare prescription plans, Democrats say they have a solution: Use the government's buying power to bargain for rock-bottom drug prices. The Department of Veterans Affairs does it for 5 million patients, they point out, so why not Medicare with its 43 million? Medicare sets rates for hospitals, doctors and medical equipment such as power wheelchairs -- as well as drugs administered in doctors' offices. It was only the Republicans' ideological commitment to the private sector that led them to bar the government from negotiating discounts with drug companies, Democrats contend.