U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lisbon, and the Vietnam Veterans of America last week filed a suit against the Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming the department has been withholding services to veterans.
The policy, enacted in July 2002, prevents active marketing to veterans, informing them of services they are eligible to receive, Strickland said.
They said too many veterans were coming in for services. They stopped disseminating information
which I think they are required to do just because they wanted to save money Strickland said.
Strickland said he filed the suit as a last resort.
I had written letters to and met with Secretary (of Veterans' Affairs Anthony) Principi since a month after the policy was announced
he said. Nothing seemed to convince them of the wrongness or illegal nature of this policy.
Bob Barnhart, public affairs officer for the Ohio network of Veterans' Affairs, said he could not recall the specific memo, but that because of an increasing number of patients, facilities were forced to limit services.
We feel we're seeing an unprecedented number of veterans
he said. (Principi) decided to limit services to wealthy vets and focus on where the need was the greatest. We prioritized the care.
Those veterans with combat-related injuries are given priority over non-service connected veterans, whose injuries are not a result of their service.
Phil Budahn, the department's director of media relations, said between July 2002 and September 2003, the department enrolled more than 880,000 new veterans. During that same time period, 300,000 veterans had been waiting more than six months to see a doctor. Last year, 7.1 million veterans were enrolled nationwide with the department and 4.5 million were treated. Barnhart said no statistics were available for Ohio.
That's a dramatic increase in population
Budahn said. And one of the things that has concerned us. But he stressed that the department never stopped recruiting.
We stopped doing things that were solely to recruit
he said, like going to malls with handfuls of enrollment forms. The emphasis was more on providing basic health information to veterans and enrollment in the department as an aside.
The problem, Budhan said, was the backflow of veterans. (Principi) felt that we had a moral responsibility to bring the number (of patients) down and make sure that when they signed up
they were going to be seen by doctors not put on a waiting list.
Barnhart said he was aware of Strickland's efforts, but stressed that no clinic had ever withheld services.
If a veteran presents himself
we take him
Barnhart said. We would never turn away any eligible veteran. I don't think prioritization in and of itself is a bad thing
it's a method that gives treatment to who needs it the most.
Strickland said he is hopeful that the court will reverse the department's policy and expects a decision in a couple of months.
We're in the process of deciding to expedite (the decision) by approaching the court and requesting injunctive relief
