Regarding the Glaring Deficiencies in Health Care for our Vets: 

A sure fire cure for the appalling defects exposed at Walter Reed Hospital and the entire heath system would be to demand that neither the President nor any member of Congress be allowed, regardless of their riches, to have better health care, now or hereafter, than their average constituent. 

Bet changes would be made almost instantly.

[similar irreverence at http://resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com and http://lawlessone.wordpress.com.  Link to them if you like.]

If you are just catching on, now that the rats and roaches have appeared on your television screen, you are several wars late.

I remember the streets littered with Vietnam Vets who had no place to live, and were not able to work, or even get through one full day in good shape mentally. Many of them spent the balance of their lives in the street. Where was the care they deserved?

What has happened with the wounded in body and mind since then? I´ll make you a bet that the stories that date back to the first wars fought by our professional army are much the same. When they need you for cannon fodder you are a hero. After they have used you, you are expensive baggage.

Of course, the history of that did not start with the formation of the USA, so if we are determinedly ignorant of history, and our children get caught in it, why whine?

my friend joe has a unique post on the walter reed fiasco

http://joeleonardi.wordpress.c…..e-outrage/

or

http://www.joeleonardi.wordpress.com

mia

The Publican Party has always, always, a;ways paid lip service to “supporting the troops” and then snapped their tight little purses shut on the fingers wounded vets.

It’s history, people - the Publicans hate vets, maybe more than they hate poor people.

My own grandfather never got the “Bonus” promised to returning WWI vets by lying Publicans who intended to never pay out - and then my grandmother still had to fight for his paltry death benefit.

The next time a Publican claims to support the troops, remind him (or her) of their lying, deceitful ways.

One of the important lessons I have learned in my sojourn here on earth is that when in a hierarchical society such as ours, something as big as the problem with Veteran´s Care is never the fault of the care givers, it is ALWAYS at the top. Who sets the tone? Who formulates the policy? Who allocates the money?

These people have been not only failing at their jobs, they have wantonly ignored their jobs, for a long time…...AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY KNEW AND DID NOTHING…..

Servicemembers are given physicals before they are discharged. However, they cannot be discharged while still receiving care (a problem of the medical holding companies in the DoD).  Many of the wounded are medically retired from the military and receive benefits immediately.  However, they still need to apply for benefits from the VA to receive VA benefits.
There is not such thing as a single medical record in the military anymore.  The combination of several computer systems combined with a legacy paper system makes the system very hard to do.

Interfacing the DoD systems with the VA system is very difficult because there is a tremendous amount of information in the DoD system that the VA, by law, cannot access.  Also, for the DoD medical systems to functions they are interfaced with other DoD computer systems such as the payroll system. Interfacing with interfaced data is hard to maintain and very fragile.