Vfcs Vets Lawsuit Allowed!

[Berta]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...amp;type=health

This is incredible NEWS!

From NVLSP web site- vets news issues

Judge in S.F. allows suit charging VA denies some vets health care

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, January 11, 2008

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Back to Health

Veterans' advocates can proceed with a lawsuit claiming that the federal government's health care system for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan illegally denies care and benefits, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti, a conservative jurist and a World War II veteran, rejected Bush administration arguments that civil courts have no authority over the Department of Veterans Affairs' medical decisions or how it handles grievances and claims.

If the plaintiffs can prove their allegations, Conti said, they would show that "thousands of veterans, if not more, are suffering grievous injuries as the result of their inability to procure desperately needed and obviously deserved health care."

He said federal courts are competent to decide whether those injuries were caused by flaws in the health care system and the VA's grievance procedures.

Conti did not rule on the adequacy of the treatment system, which will be addressed in future proceedings. But he decided one disputed issue, finding that veterans are legally entitled to two years of health care after leaving the service. The government had argued that it was required to provide only as much care as the VA's budget allowed in a given year.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Melissa Kasnitz of Disability Rights Advocates, said the judge had rejected the VA's "shameful effort to keep these deserving veterans from their day in court."

The next step is a hearing on the plaintiffs' request for an injunction that would require the federal agency to provide immediate mental health treatment for veterans who suffer from stress disorders and are at risk of suicide, said Sidney Wolinsky, another Disability Rights Advocates lawyer. That hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22.

The suit claims that the federal government's failure to provide timely treatment is contributing to an epidemic of suicides among returning soldiers.

The suit was filed in July by two organizations, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, as a proposed class action on behalf of 320,000 to 800,000 veterans or their survivors.

The groups said the VA arbitrarily denies care and benefits to wounded veterans, forces them to wait months for treatment and years for benefits, and gives them little recourse when it rejects their medical claims. The department has a backlog of more than 600,000 disability claims, the suit said.

A Pentagon study group reported in June that the system was understaffed, prompting the VA to announce staffing increases in July. The study group also found that 84,000 veterans, more than one-third of those who sought care from the department from 2002 through 2006, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress or another mental disorder.

In seeking dismissal of the suit, the Justice Department argued that Congress had barred federal courts from hearing complaints about the VA system when it established a special Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims in 1988 to review grievances over treatment and benefits. But Conti said the special court can examine only individual cases and has no power to consider "systematic, constitutional challenges." He said those belong in regular courts.

Conti also said the VA system, originally intended as an informal procedure to help veterans resolve their claims, has morphed into an adversarial process in which claimants have to comply with formal legal rules, often without a lawyer.

"It is within the court's power to insist that veterans be granted a level of due process that is commensurate with the adjudication procedures with which they are confronted," Conti said.

Efforts to reach the Justice Department were unsuccessful.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle"

[Pete53]

The VA contradicts itself all the time Berta. If you go to Myhelthevet it says that a Veteran with diabetes needs to have eye examination every year. My VA will not do it but every two years even if the Veteran needs a change in prescription due to changes in vision.

Also many of the outlandish speculations that VARO makes regularly violate Medical Ethetics and this would include many other medical decisons on meds and treatment and delays of treatment.

It is unlikely that any hospital in the US could get away with what the VA does routinely.

[timetowinarace]

vets are great at complaining but when it comes time to put their money and time where their mouths are it suddenly dries up, most veterans are not hurt by the actions of the VA out of 25 million veterans less than 10% get compensation checks and for the most part they are satisfied with what they get, the percentage of veterans in our boat where they have to fight the system to get even a portion of their benefits awarded are less than 1% so we are considered "trouble makers" and misfits despite the fact we are the ones the system is abusing

many veterans of the "greatest generation" feel that if the government owed it to you they would give it to you, so if it was denied there has to be a reason for it. They are the ones who are less likley to appeal a denial or NOD a low ball award. Many times it is their children who force them to deal with it, many like my step father never "deal with it" he was one of the Cold War "Nuke exposed vets" in the Nevada above ground experiments....he had 3 kinds of cancer linked to the tests, he died the year the govt passed the RECA act he never got the 75,000 lump sum payment.

Vets are hard pressed to go to area field hearings like they had for the Veterans Benefits Commission 2 years ago, how many are going to spend the time or the money to travel to DC to rally or hold schedulaed meetings with VA Committee members from the Hosue or the Senate, I don't think it was 2 weeks ago Charles Kelley tried to get people motivated to do just this and he got less than 10 responses from people willing to get involved 10 people from 25 million, Congress doesn't care about us, because despite all the Service Organizations "helping us" it appears we just don't care look at how well they support us, they don't and they are still in business why?

Part of what you say is true. But, I think service organizations are holding back a march more than anything. For one, their members rely on the organization, especially the ones politically established, to sway the government. But there are dozens of these orgs, all with their own agenda and it divides veterans. Two, too much emphisis is being put on helping each individual veteran. With the claims proccess so messed up, VSO recources are stretched to thin to tackle the big picture. So they must pick their battles and peck at change.

Many veterans of the "greatest generation" DID march on washington once. I cannot remember dates and details, but I believe WW1 vets went to washington sometime during the depression years. It may have been WW2 vets in the fourties. I do know they did go to washington and demanded change and did not leave untill they got it. I will try to research the specifics to post.

There are over 600,000 backlogged claims. We don't need 600,000 veterans to show up. It would be better if the 25,000,000 vets did but as few as 1,000 standing on the capitol would be heard. I believe more than that would show. 1% of 25,000,000 is 250,000. With a backlog of 600,000 I'm inclined to believe that more than 250,000 veterans are complainers. Even with those numbers, if 1% of the supposed 1% group showed up(250,000), 2,500(.1%) veterans standing on the stairs of the capitol would be heard.

If we just figure backlogged claims, and 1% of those veterans showed up, that's 6,000 veterans. Then there are the veterans like me that have no active claims. The veterans that do this for their brothers and sisters because our personal fight with the VA is over. These veterans have more clout with the public because They are not complaining for their own behalf. I would gain very little by doing this. Nobody can say I am complaining because I want a higher rating. How many of us are there, and how many will go? I know this one will.

Just my thoughts. Wish I could get it started.

Time

[Testvet]

the WW1 vets marched on Washington to get the "bonus money" they were promised, they set up shanty towns on the mall, General MacArthur used tanks, horse calvary and cleaned the shanty towns out at the behest of General Marshall http:www.//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army yes the payments were made before they were due but themarchers paid a price for it.

I am not saying there aren't any veterans that would not go, there are many of us, by Charles Kelley who has been as active in Agent Orange issues and research as anyone I know recently called for volunteers to "march" on Washington in a manner that would get attention meetings with VA committee members from both the House and the Senate, rally on the mall, people to release press reports etc, the response he received was small and left him disillusioned.....

Edited January 12, 2008 by Testvet

[timetowinarace]

Thanks for clarifying the bonus money march.

I agree with the point you are making. I only feel that the methods left to us without marching will leave us with more of the same results that we have gotten to date. And I don't have the answers to unite veterans to get it done. Otherwize, we would be in washington now.

Maybe this court decision will make a difference in the end but I don't count on it.

Time

[john999]

I was told by the local Prez of VVA that his members love the VA. What can you say?

[Pete53]

Usually the Vets who have no prescription coverage love the VA.