Clinton unveils plan for veterans, military personnel

[riversedge]

Source: militaryTimes.com




Correct The Record Verified account ?@CorrectRecord 42m42 minutes ago

New from @militarytimes — @HillaryClinton proposes revamping the Veterans Health Administration: http://militari.ly/1NHuReR





By Leo Shane III, Staff writer 11:03 a.m. EST November 10, 2015
Hillary Clinton releases veterans plan



(Photo: Jim Cole/AP)



Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Tuesday unveiled what will be her priorities on veterans and military personnel issues if elected, focusing on reforms to existing programs rather than the extensive overhauls and eliminations favored by her Republican rivals.

The move comes just hours before Veterans Day and just weeks after Clinton took heavy criticism from Republican candidates who portrayed her as downplaying problems in the Veterans Affairs Department.

In her policy platform, Clinton laments the “systemic failures” within VA and said recent scandals in the department “represent government at its worst.”

But the former secretary of state’s plan refutes Republican proposals to outsource much of VA’s operations, labeling such a move as “privatization” of the department that could leave veterans “vulnerable to a health care market poorly suited to their needs.”

Instead, Clinton proposes revamping the Veterans Health Administration, offering better coordination with military health care, private physicians and other existing resources while still leaving VA in the lead role.

“VA must maintain the ultimate responsibility of coordinating and ensuring comprehensive and quality health care for every veteran and the specialized services that they deserve — critical functions that would disappear if the VA were privatized,” the plan states.................



Read more: http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2015/11/10/clinton-veterans-military-platform/75505370/

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[elleng]

1. Well waddya know!

O'Malley offers VA reform plans on eve of Veterans Day.Military Times

'Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley offered his sweeping veterans and military policy platform Monday, to include ending veterans unemployment by 2020, overhauling health care offerings and ending “wrongful” military discharges related to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The move comes just hours before Veterans Day and gives a direct response to criticism from veterans groups that the Democrat still hadn’t engaged on those issues enough, either on the campaign trail or on his website.

“Veterans have not escaped Washington’s dysfunction,” the former Maryland governor’s campaign states in his new policy paper. “While some progress has been made at (VA), the current situation remains unacceptable. Further reform and bold actions are needed to ensure instances of data manipulation and secret wait lists never happen again.”

Those reforms include expanding several of O’Malley’s veterans initiatives in Maryland to a national level, including the use of new data analysis tools and a greater emphasis on local facility control and response.

He promises to lead “a national call to action to prevent veteran suicide,” to include personally touring multiple VA health facilities during his first month in office and increasing the number of mental health professionals within the department.

O’Malley also promised better interoperability of VA and Pentagon health records and more accountability of senior VA executives, although of those goals have been promised — and unsuccessfully executed — by past administrations.

The candidate also has pledged to crack down on “predatory for-profit colleges” and close the 90/10 loophole that excludes GI Bill benefits from schools’ calculations of federal funds.

For troops dismissed under the now-repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, O’Malley supports automatically upgrading their service records, removing any blemish on their military careers.

The plan, available on his campaign website, follows similar sweeping reform efforts in recent weeks from other candidates such as Republican business mogul Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Those moves follow calls from veterans groups that their issues have not received enough attention in the campaign so far, especially in light of VA scandals in recent years involving patient wait times and mismanagement within the department.

O’Malley’s Democratic primary opponents, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have highlighted veterans issues in their campaign stops, but to mixed success.

Clinton received criticism in October for comments that downplayed past problems at VA, and blamed Republicans for looking to score political points instead of passing needed reforms. Sanders has received criticism for his time as chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, and oversight lapses related to that panel’s work.'

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2015/11/09/omalley-veterans-plan-2016/75450140/

[riversedge]

3. More details from Hillary's campaign website on VA overhaul:

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/p/briefing/factsheets/2015/11/06/supporting-our-veterans-troops-and-their-families/

[SunSeeker]

5. Hillary did not "downplay" the problems.

Her point was that they were not so widespread and irremediable as the GOP claims, thus there is no reason to privatize the VA, as Republicans want to do. That would be a disaster for veterans.

[riversedge]

2. #HillaryInNH in Derry,NH speaking on #veterans and #militaryfamilies with the @TrumanProject

Julie McClain ?@McClainJulie 1h1 hour ago

Julie McClain Retweeted Truman Project

In Derry @HillaryClinton shows she's the candidate who will fight for vets & their families #nhpolitics #HillaryinNH


Hillary for SC and 57 others follow
Colin Oldenburg ?@colinoldenburg 1h1 hour ago

#HillaryInNH in Derry,NH speaking on #veterans and #militaryfamilies with the @TrumanProject

[SunSeeker]

4. Good. Meanwhile, the GOP's idea of fixing the VA is to kill it. nt

[NuclearDem]

6. Very solid plan.

O'Malley did beat her to it, though, and he has the executive experience of actually implementing some of the reforms he's proposed.

[Javaman]

8. hillay slogan is "yeah, me too". she has taken all "her ideas" from either Bernie or O'Malley.

just par for the course for her.

[Iliyah]

7. PLUS, get Rush off the military's radio, please!