Fixing the VA disability syste
Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is determined to make his department more responsive to the needs of the men and women who served the nation and now need its help as they cope with illness. He's made progress in that campaign. Now, he wants to streamline catalog printing a VA disability system that currently requires some veterans to wait months or years to obtain compensation for service-related injuries. That's an admirable goal. It fulfills both his department's mission and the nation's promise to care for those who served in the military.
The VA's problems have been well documented in the past couple of years. There have been questions about both the delivery and standard of care. Veterans and their advocates continue to worry about access to care. There are debates, too, about the agency's ability to handle growing caseloads imposed by an aging veteran population.
Gen. Shinseki initiated changes in programs and procedures to address those issues. They've proved beneficial in many instances. Though problems remain, the most egregious seem to have been ameliorated if not resolved. Access to care and the quality of care have improved recently, a majority of veterans and their advocates agree. In addition, Gen. Shinseki has brought welcome attention to other problems -- homelessness, unemployment, suicide -- that affect Prada Replica Handbags a growing number of veterans. Those actions are useful and, in some instances, life-saving.
His next step, Gen. Shinseki told The Associated Press on Monday, is to reduce the VA's backlog of disability claims, especially those made by Vietnam and Gulf War veterans. He took a step in that direction late last fall when he issued an administrative order to make it easier for up to 200,000 sick Vietnam veterans who were exposed to the Agent Orange herbicide to obtain service-related financial compensation. His decision initially will cause as many problems as it will resolve.
The additional caseload will extend the wait time for decisions about disability claims. In the long run, though, it will help officials develop systems to expedite the claims process, and give veterans their due. That's important because the VA secretary likely will extend benefits similar to those for Vietnam vets to Gulf War veterans with similar service-related illnesses and disabilities.
The VA and the Pentagon now are working together to create a system to expedite disability claims. The goal is to erase or significantly diminish the current backlog so an applicant's claim is processed in four months, or less. That would be a significant improvement over the current waiting period, which sometimes extends to a year or more.
Gen. Shinseki, a former Army chief of staff, knows the value of strategic planning. Cleaning up the VA's problems now is costly and time-consuming, but Replica fendi wholesale it should make the agency more efficient. That will be especially important when large numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans turn to it for assistance.
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