By Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Tuesday chose a retired military doctor and decorated Vietnam veteran to head the veterans agency criticized over shoddy health care for soldiers wounded in the Iraq and Afghan wars.
Lt. Gen. James Peake was chosen as Bush's nominee as secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department. If confirmed by the Senate, he would replace Jim Nicholson, who left government to join the private sector.
Peake, a former Army surgeon general, would be the first physican and first general to hold the job. As someone who was wounded twice in combat, Peake "understands the view from both sides of the hospital bed," Bush said.
The selection of Peake came eight months after a scandal erupted over reports of poor health care for veterans of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush has apologized for the problems, which included dilapidated conditions at the flagship Walter Reed Army Medical Center and bureaucratic delays faced by soldiers seeking care for their injuries.
He also has embraced the findings of a panel formed to recommend how to fix the problems in veterans care.
The veterans agency was also criticized after the revelation in 2006 that a laptop computer containing data on 26.5 million veterans had been stolen. The laptop was later recovered.
At the White House ceremony where his selection was announced, Peake acknowledged continued flaws with some of the services provided to veterans and pledged to overhaul them.
"The disability system is largely a 1945 product, 1945 processes, around a 1945 family unit. About everybody that has studied it recently said it is time to do some revisions," Peake said.
Peake was nominated by President Bill Clinton as Army surgeon general and served in that role from 2000-2004. After leaving that post, he worked for Project Hope, a nonprofit international health organization.
Most recently, Peake was chief medical director for QTC Management Inc., a private firm that provides medical exams and electronic medical records services for veterans.
Congressional Democrats this week criticized Bush for taking too long to name a replacement for Nicholson, a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who said in July he was leaving.
Peake has served in military medicine for more than 40 years and served in the Vietnam War. He was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds suffered in combat and a Bronze Star for acts for valor.
He graduated from the U.S. military academy at West Point and got his medical training at Cornell University.
Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat who is running for president, said he hoped Peake would bring a "new era of leadership" to the veterans agency. But Obama said budget shortfalls, inadequate care and other problems had marked the Bush administration's oversight of the agency.
(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria)
Labels: VA News
Cox News Service
WASHINGTON | Nearly 1.8 million U.S. veterans are without health insurance, and more than half of them said they had no place to go when they were sick, researchers reported Tuesday.
The finding contradicts many Americans’ assumption that all veterans qualify for free health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The uninsured veterans are primarily low- to middle-income workers, ages 44 to 64, who are too poor to afford private insurance coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or VA health care, the Harvard Medical School researchers said.
Analyzing data from two federal surveys, the researchers found that more than one-fourth of the uninsured veterans said they did not get needed medical care or delayed it because of its cost. Nearly half said they had not had an office visit or contact with a health professional in more than a year, and two-thirds said they received no preventive care.
The study also found that more than 25 percent of uninsured veterans said they could not afford prescriptions, and more than 20 percent said they could not afford eyeglasses.
The researchers said the main cause for the large number of uninsured veterans was the narrowing of eligibility for health care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2003, the Bush administration limited VA health-care eligibility to veterans with combat-related health problems or those making less than $30,000 a year.
“I was not surprised to hear that (1.8 million veterans are uninsured) … given the large number of uninsured in this country,” said John Rowan, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America.
There are nearly 24 million U.S. veterans, according to the VA.
The study is based on an analysis of government surveys released between 1988 and 2005. It will be published in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Labels: VA News
WASHINGTON -- A Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee in Boston, Dr. Jonathan Shay, has been awarded the so-called “Genius Award” from the MacArthur Foundation. Shay, the author of two popular books about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has been a VA staff psychiatrist treating combat veterans with PTSD since November 1987.
“Dr. Shay is living proof that VA is providing our veterans with the best health care this country has to offer, especially for the treatment of PTSD,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “Our veterans deserve -- and VA is providing -- world-class health care.”
Shay was one of 24 Americans who each recently received a $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations, for “exceptional merit and promise of continued creative work.” Shay combines a study of classic literature with 20 years of experience treating veterans in Boston to explain PTSD to both the public and health care professionals.
In addition to publications in professional journals, he is the author of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America, two widely regarded books that helped spread the understanding that PTSD is an age-old battlefield injury by comparing the works of the ancient Greek poet Homer to the experiences of modern combat veterans.
He also pioneered the use of certain anti-depression medicine, called “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors,” for combat trauma, a treatment that now has broad endorsement for veterans with psychological injury.
Besides working for VA, Shay has also worked with the military services and the Defense Department in a variety of capacities to foster an understanding of PTSD, improve military leadership and strengthen ethics training for the military.
Shay received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, and his M.D. and Ph.D. in neuropathology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Labels: VA News
