Veterans sue Rumsfeld over retirement home medical cutbacks

• Residents of a historic retirement home for war veterans filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, asserting that the Pentagon chief has imposed excessive and illegal cutbacks in on-site medical and dental services.
• The suit was filed in federal court on behalf of the nearly 1,000 residents at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, one of two such institutions managed by the Defense Department.
• In their complaint, the home's residents said Rumsfeld has a ready remedy for the financial problems that led to the cutbacks in services and staffing, but he has chosen not to act.
• They said Congress gave the Pentagon authority in 1994 to increase one source of the home's operating funds --- a 50-cent-per-month payroll deduction paid by every enlisted member and warrant officer in the military.
• Another source of revenue are the fines and forfeitures levied upon members of the active-duty military in judicial proceedings.
• The lawsuit also named as a defendant the Pentagon official who manages the home, Timothy Cox.
• By law the Armed Forces Retirement Homes, in Washington and in Gulfport, Miss., must provide "on-site primary care, medical care and a continuum of long-term care services."
• In an April 27, 2004 letter to the residents group that was pushing for a reversal of cutbacks, Cox asserted that the reduced level of services was in compliance with the law, according to the lawsuit.
• Among the cutbacks cited by Rutherford and other residents are the closing in 2003 of the home's main clinic and an on-site pharmacy, elimination of on-site X-ray and electrocardiogram services and reductions in annual physicals as well as the number of on-site dentists.
• The retirement home, previously known as the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home, was opened in 1851 for wounded and disabled war veterans.