Springfield News-Leader: Missourians step up for wounded
April 08, 2007
After Walter Reed debacle, McCaskill, Skelton work to improve medical, mental-health care for veterans
By Pamela Brogan
Springfield News-Leader
Washington -- Rep. Ike Skelton and Sen. Claire McCaskill are spearheading efforts in Congress to help wounded soldiers get better medical care and mental health services at U.S. military hospitals.
In the wake of the scandal over treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the Missouri lawmakers said quick congressional action is needed.
Skelton, D-Lexington, said he is particularly concerned because the Navy has proposed cutting 900 medical providers and 100 physicians from its budget next year.
"That's not good," said Skelton, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee. "If I have anything to do with this, it's not going to happen."
About 25,000 soldiers have been wounded in Iraq, and 56 Missourians have been killed. The Pentagon does not provide state-by-state data on wounded soldiers.
The House recently gave unanimous approval to a bill sponsored by Skelton that would create a new system of case managers, service member advocates and counselors to help returning troops.
It would also require the Defense Department to notify lawmakers when soldiers have been hospitalized.
The bill would create a hotline to field complaints about conditions at medical facilities and create a single system to transfer medical records from the DOD to the Veterans Administration.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would cost $366 billion over a five-year period.
Skelton's bill has not been introduced in the Senate, but the Senate Armed Services and the Veterans Affairs committees will hold a joint hearing Thursday on the medical treatment of soldiers by the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Top DOD and VA officials are expected to testify on several issues in Skelton's bill.
The White House has called Skelton's bill "premature," despite its bipartisan support in the House leadership, including Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Springfield, the House minority whip.
The White House wants Congress to wait until after July 31 before it writes new legislation. That's when a presidential commission is expected to report on medical problems in the military.
"This is an emergency," said Democrat McCaskill, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has met with dozens of military families and wounded soldiers while conducting a two-month study of the 24 military-related health care facilities in the state.
"We can't be waiting around for some commission report from Washington," she said. "Evidently, the president has not spent much time speaking with the wounded, veterans and their families."
Republican Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond is conducting a tour of veterans' hospitals in the state.
McCaskill and presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., also a member of the committee, are expected to push this month for Senate legislation that would provide four additional case managers, mental health and crisis counselors for troops and their families at each military hospital.
There are 66 military hospitals in the United States and overseas that treat wounded soldiers, including General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital at the Army's Fort Leonard Wood.
The hospital treated 113 wounded soldiers last year and is now treating 14, spokesman Carl Norman said. The hospital will stop treating wounded solders this July, Norman said, as part of a reorganization and consolidation of medical services by DOD.
It also would provide $15 million for mental health services for female soldiers who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and sexual abuse. And it would make it easier for soldiers to file medical forms by creating an electronic filing system. The bill's total cost would be $103 million.
The Obama-McCaskill measure was deleted from an Iraq war spending bill last month in a parliamentary move. But McCaskill is vowing to attach the bill to other legislation moving in the Senate or introduce Skelton's bill.
"This can't be put on the back burner," she said.
