Veterans' health care costs could
exceed war costs
SEATTLE - Senator Patty Murray and a group of docotors released a
new
report Thursday that estimates health care costs for our returning
soldiers at $650 billion.
The Physicians for Social
Responsibility, an anti-war group, put together the report. One of the
researchers is a University of Washington psychiatrist who has worked
extensively with injured soldiers.
Murray plans on using
the report's data to reignite the debate on how much money should be
spent to take care of injured vets in Seattle and around the country.
"This report should serve as a wake up for Americans and this
administration. While we endlessly debate what we are gaining in Iraq,
hundreds of thousands of soldiers and their families are falling victim
to death, post-war trauma and lifelong struggles with mental and
physical wounds as a legacy of this war. The U.S. needs to bring its
troops home now,” said Dr. Evan Kanter, author of the report.
Murray was expected to announce that as many as 30 percent of
injured
soldiers have suffered a traumatic brain injury and research on the
subject is still lacking.
The data from the heavily cited new report written
by the group of physicians also says Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
among returning soldiers is high, perhaps around 20 percent.
Iraq war vets are more likely to suffer from serious mental
health
problems such as depression or anxiety attacks and are more likely to
have a substance abuse disorder.
Murray claims the data
shows the need for increasing veterans' health funding, which is the
subject of heavy debate right now on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
The current VA funding bill that is before a Senate subcommittee
puts
the total budget for next year's VA funding around the $87 billion
range.
Troops returning home after serving overseas are
also among those most at risk of becoming homeless. According to a new
report, veterans make up 25 percent of the entire homeless population.
The Veterans Department says at least 1,500 are homeless
veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
THE MYSTERY OF IRAQ NON-COMBAT DEATHS AND MEDIVACS
GREG MITCHELL, EDITOR & PUBLISHER - Pretty much alone in the
media, E&P for weeks had been charting a troubling increase in
non-combat deaths among U.S. troops in Iraq. . .
According to Pentagon figures, 29 soldiers lost their lives in August
for non-hostile reasons, and another 23 died of non-combat causes in
September. Compare that with the average for the first seven months of
this year: fewer than nine per month. The spike has coincided with
extended 15-month deployments, one senior military official said.
The military officially counts about 20% of the nearly 3900 U.S.
fatalities in Iraq as "noncombat." It has officially confirmed 128
suicides in Iraq since 2003, with many others under investigation (and
still more taking place on the return home). . .
As I've noted repeatedly, the military releases little news to the
press when a service member dies from a non-hostile cause, beyond
saying it is "under investigation." When that probe ends, many months
later, the military normally does not tell anyone but family members of
the deceased. For more than four years, however, E&P has kept close
tabs on non-combat deaths. . .
[From a letter Mitchell received]
Thank you for addressing the non-combat deaths issue. I've been struck
by the number of people killed when vehicles drove into canals (Michael
Kelly of the Washington Post being the best known of these). . .
Another mystery you should call attention to is the medivacs of people
for non-combat injuries and illnesses, which far exceed those for
combat injuries. Icasualties.org reports 24,912 non-hostile medivacs,
which means the people were flown out or Iraq and to Germany (or
perhaps other military hospitals). Some 18,741 of the patients suffer
from disease/other (as opposed to the 6,171 for non-combat related
injuries, presumably trauma).
Three times as many of our troops are being flown out of Iraq for
disease than wounds in battle (6,354), and yet we hear nothing about
this epidemic, or whatever it is. . .
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