Question:
The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has
triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government
is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the past five years, the number of veterans receiving compensation for
the disorder commonly called PTSD has grown nearly seven times as fast as
the number receiving benefits for disabilities in general, according to a
report this year by the inspector general of the Department of Veterans
Affairs. A total of 215,871 veterans received PTSD benefit payments last
year at a cost of $4.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of
more than 150 percent.
Experts say the sharp increase does not begin to factor in the potential
impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, because the increase is largely
the result of Vietnam War vets seeking treatment decades after their combat
experiences. Facing a budget crunch, experts within and outside the Veterans
Affairs Department are raising concerns about fraudulent claims, wondering
whether the structure of government benefits discourages healing, and even
questioning the utility and objectivity of the diagnosis itself.
Answer:
The problem remaisn that there are hundreds of vets gettign VA money for
ptsd who never saw a day of combat. Less than 10% of all the U.S. force
ever engaged the enemy. The problem is all the pot heads and dope addicts
want ptsd.
I would suspect that the GW vets who have really sufferedntramatic eents
will get their money.
Notworthy: There were some Army stufies publishedf in Military Medicne that
orginally linked ptsd to excessive marijuana resulting in "marijuana
psychosis". Then the VVAW Dream Team came along with a pyschiatrist (Lifton)
and redefined it. Then the VA compared the Agent Orange cases as being less
that 10% of the force which is probably correct - then they compared the
ssame 10% ptsd cases to the same veterans with substance abuse. Well,
Well - the VA data did not include Veterans who served in Vietnam who were
not in the VA Data base, or who never wanted to make use of the VA. Either
way, the data is flawed.
