Originally published July 16 2015
Here's how the US government treats vets: VA disability claims found shredded in the garbage
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) Does Uncle Sam hate his own military veterans? You might think so given his history of mistreatment, medical experimentation and outright disdain for them.
The latest insult is actually a repeat of an earlier one: Again, the Veterans Administration has failed the very clients that the nation's largest health care system was established to serve.
Two California lawmakers are demanding to know why and how paperwork necessary to finalize veterans' disability claims wound up as trash in a shredding bin at a Los Angeles care facility.
As reported by the Military Times:
The latest embarrassing episode for the Veterans Affairs Department comes alongside questions surrounding 240,000 deceased veterans on agency medical waiting lists and worries from senators that physician credentialing problems in Arizona may stop cancer treatments for veterans there.
Staff members for Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., said that officials in the VA's Inspector General's office have confirmed that key pieces of paperwork from vets' claims files were discovered "inappropriately placed in shred bins" at the Los Angeles Regional Office.
"Such misconduct could have a devastating impact on the affected veterans and their families, resulting in the loss of critical information and adversely affecting the adjudication of veteran claims," the two lawmakers said in their letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald. "Simply put, this is unacceptable."
Historic abuse of our vets
You may recall that, about a year ago, then-VA Administrator Eric Shinseki, retired U.S. Army chief of staff, was forced to resign after it was discovered that thousands of vets had died waiting for treatment at VA facilities, many having been placed on phony lists that were hidden from administrators.
Then, CNN correspondent Jake Tapper grilled White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough over President Obama's usual scandal posture: indifference, holding no one accountable and calculated outrage without any real action being taken. Apparently, little has changed.
But perhaps that should have been anticipated. As the Military Times notes, the VA is notorious for losing or misplacing veterans' paperwork.
Seven years ago, for instance, following similar allegations that documents were improperly shredded, the VA's IG recommended the adoption of a number of new controls so that critical paperwork was not being swallowed up by the system. Brownley and Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., have asked if those changes were ever properly implemented and whether new rules are now necessary.
For vets, advocates have long recommended they keep multiple copies of all their paperwork, because of VA's recurring problem of losing original paperwork.
But again, allowing vets to die while waiting for care, putting them on fake waiting lists and shredding or losing paperwork is all part of the government's historic abuse of its fighting men and women.
Is the VA even capable of delivering on its promise to vets?
As we reported in June, the military – in conjunction with Big Pharma – is turning thousands of military members and vets into drug-addicted time-bombs.
Because of the VA's inability to treat the underlying problems of many service members' emotional stress and strain of deployment, providers have increasingly turned to prescription medications – psychotropics, mostly – to mask their conditions. As a result, studies have found, the medication masking has helped fuel a dramatic rise in military suicides.
As John Fund at National Review Online noted, the VA itself admitted in June that as many as 22 service members a day were committing suicide.
"Investigator James O'Keefe, whose previous undercover videos have exposed scandals involving ACORN, PBS, and voter fraud, has interviewed people who raise disturbing questions about the VA's inability to treat the underlying causes of veterans' emotional problems, as it falls back on a regime of drug therapies that often mask the problems or have serious side effects that make matters worse," Fund wrote. O'Keefe's video report is here.
In addition, as we reported in 2014, military psychiatrists have essentially utilized our military personnel as guinea pigs for decades.
As long as the VA remains a federal bureaucracy, it will never deliver on its promise to provide timely, efficient and quality care to veterans. That's just the nature of the beast.
Sources:
militarytimes.com
naturalnews.com
edition.cnn.com
nationalreview.com
youtube.com
nationalreview.com
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml