PROGRESS REPORT - Despite a dramatic increase in demand on the Veterans
Administration from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, federal spending on
veterans' medical care since 2001 has "actually lagged behind overall
national health spending." Veterans are now charged for formerly free
services, including hundreds of dollars each month for food, so the VA
can save money. The VA has a backlog of 400,000 benefit claims,
including many concerning mental health. More important, two months
before the invasion of Iraq, the Veterans Health Administration, "which
previously offered care to all veterans, introduced severe new
restrictions on who is entitled to enroll in its health care system."
On Friday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee headed by
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) released an internal memo from Sept. 2006
describing how the Army's decision to privatize support services at
Walter Reed was causing an exodus of "highly skilled and experienced
personnel," placing the entire hospital and its patient care services
"at risk of mission failure." In Jan. 2006, against the wishes of
numerous progressive members of Congress, Walter Reed finalized a
five-year, $120-million "cost-plus" contract to IAP Worldwide Services
for hospital support services, including facilities management. IAP is
led by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official who testified in
2004 "in defense of Halliburton's exorbitant charges for fuel delivery
and troop support in Iraq," and former Vice President Dan Quayle serves
on the board. IAP has "grown exponentially in recent years in part
because of contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq"; in 2005, it received a
contract to deliver desperately-needed ice to victims of Hurricane
Katrina, but "millions of pounds of ice were sent to storage, some as
far away as Maine." As Waxman writes, "It would be reprehensible if the
deplorable conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological
commitment to privatize government services regardless of the costs to
taxpayers and the consequences for wounded soldiers."
http://americanprogressaction.org
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Administration from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, federal spending on
veterans' medical care since 2001 has "actually lagged behind overall
national health spending." Veterans are now charged for formerly free
services, including hundreds of dollars each month for food, so the VA
can save money. The VA has a backlog of 400,000 benefit claims,
including many concerning mental health. More important, two months
before the invasion of Iraq, the Veterans Health Administration, "which
previously offered care to all veterans, introduced severe new
restrictions on who is entitled to enroll in its health care system."
On Friday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee headed by
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) released an internal memo from Sept. 2006
describing how the Army's decision to privatize support services at
Walter Reed was causing an exodus of "highly skilled and experienced
personnel," placing the entire hospital and its patient care services
"at risk of mission failure." In Jan. 2006, against the wishes of
numerous progressive members of Congress, Walter Reed finalized a
five-year, $120-million "cost-plus" contract to IAP Worldwide Services
for hospital support services, including facilities management. IAP is
led by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official who testified in
2004 "in defense of Halliburton's exorbitant charges for fuel delivery
and troop support in Iraq," and former Vice President Dan Quayle serves
on the board. IAP has "grown exponentially in recent years in part
because of contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq"; in 2005, it received a
contract to deliver desperately-needed ice to victims of Hurricane
Katrina, but "millions of pounds of ice were sent to storage, some as
far away as Maine." As Waxman writes, "It would be reprehensible if the
deplorable conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological
commitment to privatize government services regardless of the costs to
taxpayers and the consequences for wounded soldiers."
http://americanprogressaction.org
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