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Veterans Affairs
I understand we have few higher priorities than the safety and well-being of our veterans - Americans who have fought and sacrificed for our values and nation. Yet today, troops that are returning home, and that have returned home, are not getting the medical support they need and deserve. Wounded troops are increasingly relying on help from loved ones as they recuperate from devastating war injuries. Bureaucratic red-tape and substandard conditions at medical facilities like Walter Reed Hospital are blocking troops' access to veterans benefits and the highest quality of care. Meanwhile, military families are making unbelievable sacrifices for months, even years, at a time. Overhaul the Disability and Compensation Systems. Today, the average wait time for a veteran to get disability benefits is 177 days largely due to poor coordination between the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA). Over sixty percent of active duty, reserves and retired or separated service members are less than somewhat satisfied with the disability evaluation system. As your Representative, I will push legislation to fundamentally change this system by streamlining fitness and disability evaluations as well as the dispensation of disability benefits. The DoD must maintain authority to determine fitness to serve in the military and the VA must establish disability rating, compensation and benefits. The DoD and VA should be required to create a single, comprehensive, DoD-administered medical examination to achieve these purposes. For those found not fit for duty by the DoD, legislation should require the Department to provide payments based on rank and years served. Those found unfit because of combat-related duties must receive comprehensive health care for themselves and their families. Those receiving disability benefits would find them restructured to include transition payments that cover living expenses, earning-loss payments once transition payments end, and quality of life payments to compensate for non-work related effects of permanent physical and mental combat-related injuries. Equally important, I will advance legislation to adequately fund the VA each and every year. Recovery Coordinators and a Recovery Plan. As recommended by the Wounded-Warriors Commission, I will work to ensure that every veteran has access to a highly-skilled and highly-trained Recovery Coordinator responsible for creating a personalized patient-centered Recovery Plan designed to ensure an efficient, effective and smooth rehabilitation and transition back into military or civilian life. Recovery Coordinators must be given authority to coordinate medical care, rehabilitation, disability benefits, education, and employment-related programs to ensure that every service member gets the care and support they need at the right time and in the most appropriate care facility. Recovery Coordinators must be trained by the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service and Recovery Plans should start with a comprehensive clinical evaluation developed by a team of providers across the entire spectrum of care. By providing a single point of contact for patients and families - a Recovery Coordinator - I will seek to eliminate delays and gaps in treatment and services resulting in faster patient recovery. E-Benefits and the Rapid Transfer of Patient Data. In order to ensure that patients and their families have the best and most up-to-date information about their care, I will push Congress to work with the DoD and VA to create an interactive "E-Benefits" website that would provide a single information source of benefits and programs available to every service member and veteran. Through "E-Benefits," information about benefits and services must be made available on-line via a user-friendly, password-protected site. Service members and veterans should be able to securely enter personal information and, based on their profile, receive personalized information about programs and benefits available to them. I will also push legislation to require the DoD and VA to make patient data more accessible. Such a system must be designed so that all essential health, administrative and benefits data are immediately viewable by clinicians, allied health professionals or program administrators who need it. Military personnel must have visibility into their records in order to become informed and active members of the team participating in their recovery process. Equitable Access to Care. I will work to ensure that our veterans have access to the care they need where they need it. Veterans who lack geographic access to an appropriate VA facility must be given the option to receive care from private physicians and facilities within their communities - physicians and facilities that can provide the specific care required by the individual veteran's Recovery Plan. Veterans who still prefer to go to a VA clinic or medical center must be provided temporary travel arrangements. I will also push legislative action to invest in building more veterans hospitals and clinics to increase patient access and will work with the VA to ensure that tele-medicine is available to veterans where appropriate. Apart from the VA, the DoD must be required to change the way it administers the military's TRICARE health insurance program for all troops operating in the United States and overseas. More transparency should be introduced into the system and service-members who move across regions must be assured continuity of service. TRICARE management has to be centralized so continuity of health care and easy information-sharing for medical providers is ensured. I will also seek to raise TRICARE reimbursement rates to ensure high-quality private physicians participate in the provision of health care for our military and qualified military retirees. Aggressively Identify and Treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). I recognize that the DoD and VA must rapidly improve the diagnosis and treatment of both PTSD and TBI. As your Representative, I will be an advocate for PTSD care. The DoD and VA must be given funding to ensure their current workforce is well-versed in the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD and TBI. They must also be given funding to address the acute shortage of mental health clinicians and to ensure the continuity of care. Through legislation, the DoD should also be directed to work aggressively to reduce the stigma of PTSD. Extend Family and Medical Leave. When a soldier is injured or disabled, it is a family event. Oftentimes a family member must relocate for an extended period of time to be with their loved one while they are hospitalized. As your Representative, I will work to assist military families by advocating legislation to extend the Family and Medical Leave Act. Extended Care. I understand that with today's all-volunteer force we may recruit a soldier, but we must retain a family. As your Representative, I will support legislation that provides the DoD and VA with additional funding to provide families of service members who require long-term personal care with appropriate training and counseling to support them in their caregiver roles. I will also work to extend the respite care and personal attendant benefits currently provided in TRICARE's Extended Care Health Option to combat-injured soldiers. A New GI Bill. When the G.I. bill was first enacted after World War II, it paid for college and living expenses without requiring American soldiers to pay into the program. Today, troops have to reduce their paychecks by $100 per month for their first year of service so that if they later go to college they can receive a little over $1,000 per month for less than 36 months. I believe no soldier should have their salary cut to pay for college and benefits should be provided for a full four years. As your Representative, I will also push legislative action to ensure all active duty personnel and guard units that serve in combat zones are eligible for educational benefits regardless of their length of activation. Additionally, I support allowing soldiers to transfer education benefits they have not used to their spouses or children. |
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