Injured GIs Pledged Better Care

Commission calls for overhaul of military health system
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 26, 2007 5:25 AM CDT
Injured GIs Pledged Better Care
President Bush meets with the co-chairs of the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, both not shown, Wednesday, July 25, 2007, in the Oval Office of the White House...   (Associated Press)

The military health care system is inadequate to treat the casualties of  two modern wars and the nation should immediately move to overhaul it, a bipartisan presidential commission concluded yesterday. The panel called for improvements in treatment of brain injuries and post traumatic stress syndrome, as well as changes in procedures for determining disability status and benefits

The overhaul is expected to cost $500 million a year in the short term, and rise to as much as $1 billion annually as veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq wars age. The panel was established after embarrassingly poor care was uncovered at Walter Reed Hospital; President Bush said he has directed the Pentagon to implement the panel's 35 recommendations. (More PTSD stories.)

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