Biden calls for change in way vets qualify for medical care

[whirlygigspin]

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden said the nation needs to radically streamline the way veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan qualify for medical care in government-run veterans hospitals. Some veterans returning from war have had to wait as much as 170 days for their application for care to go through. If they have to appeal, many wait 200 or more days, said Biden, who was campaigning in Iowa on Sunday. There are intolerable delays in qualifying,'' he said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. ``We are bringing home so many veterans with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress syndrome. Because of the nature of deployment and repeated deployment, I want to make sure they don't get caught up in this delay.''

Biden... said he wants the government to presume that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injury or post-traumatic stress received their injuries because of the war. Currently, soldiers must prove their injuries were the result of war, he said. Biden wants the presumption to shift in favor of the soldier unless the government can prove the injury wasn't because of their service. He said returning soldiers need immediate treatment because they have the highest suicide rate of any generation of veterans, the highest divorce rate and the highest percentage of soldiers suffering brain injury."

[kas125]

1. I thought they already DID change it

That's what my representatives keep saying. I've been busy getting bills passed to take care of the troops. All three of them use that whenever we ask them why they aren't doing more or why they aren't impeaching. They keep saying that if they spent time on impeachment, they couldn't pass these important take care of the troops stuff. Great job you're doing, guys... All they ever seem do is talk in circles and not accomplish much of anything.

[gateley]

2. Biden is absolutely passionate about our troops and our veterans -

check out this video -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x69047

[jody]

3. Where is Sen. Obama? He is on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Why doesn't he do his job?

Biden isn't on the committee but apparently he is doing the job Obama should be doing.

[NYVet]

4. This is the government, you and I know it takes forever to get them to get off their asses

on something as important as this.

However, they can get a post office renamed for a crony or a highway sign proclaiming some great thing that was done by someone who we have never heard of and that nobody f'n cares about in a heartbeat.