Walter Reed: Tip of veteran-health-care iceberg

Morra Aarons Mele — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 13:47:35 -0600

The Walter Reed scandal has beamed a bright light in the face of Americaâ€™s veteransâ€™ healthcare system. There is a Congressional investigation, and thundering press and blog coverage. President Bush just appointed a â€œWalter Reed Commissionâ€ starring Bob Dole and former Health Secretary Donna Shalala. It is very interesting how political parties use the Walter Reed scandal to message their own particular goals. As I wrote a few weeks ago, this issue echoes Katrina in that it begs the question â€œWhere is our government? Why can't it help us"?

Bush said today the current veterans' healthcare system is â€œunacceptable to me, unacceptable to you, its unacceptable to our country â€” and itâ€™s not going to continue...We have an obligation, we have a moral obligation,â€ Mr. Bush added, â€œto provide the best possible care and treatment to the men and women who have served our country. They deserve it. and they are going to get it.â€

However, Paul Eaton, a former Army General, wrote today

â€œ...the Walter Reed scandal is simply the tip of the iceberg: President Bush, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Congress all pointedly failed to provide the money and resources for our returned troops wherever they are, both the obviously wounded and those who may seem healthy but are suffering mentally and physically from their service."

And although it is promising that the Bush Administration, and finally, the Army, is acting, Linda J. Bilmes, a professor of public finance at Harvard, recently completed a study of the long-term costs of providing medical care and benefits to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department of Veterans Affairs, she said, â€œis overwhelmed in every area.â€

It's hard to imagine that more money won't be forthcoming given the increased oversight. It is difficult to imagine a less overwhelming situation, however, as the wars continue.

In the blogs, Conservative activists like Michelle Malkin blame the failure at Walter Reed on the fact that it was a (bloated, big, Democratic Party-run) government hospital.

But it wasn't wholly government-run.

From Julia at the Left Coaster:

â€œA summary of the recent GOP outrages for your review: Trent Lott explains away the Walter Reed horror by saying the facility was on the base-closing list. Until then, using Lottâ€™s logic, the GOP had no problem consigning our vets to hell. But the GOP did manage to find a way for a campaign contributor and ex-Halliburton Friend-Of-Dick to make real cash at the taxpayersâ€™ expense by privatizing services at Walter Reed, so while the GOP made sure our soldiers got screwed, they also made sure GOP check writers profited from it. This explains why former RNC chair Jim Nicholson, now head of the VA, is this yearâ€™s Michael Brown."

Finally, she adds:

"Fox News has devoted 12 times more coverage to Anna Nicole Smith than they have to the story about pathetic care at Walter Reedâ€¦â€

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Walter Reed: Tip of veteran-health-care iceberg