The way the Department of Veterans Affairs awards disability claims needs to completely change, Representative Bob Filner (D-Calif.) said Tuesday night. According to a recent report from the Bay Citizen, the average wait for a disability claim to be approved is 313 days, while the department tries to verify that the claim is justified.
"People die before they get that final adjudication, or they may commit suicide," he said, speaking on The Rachel Maddow Show. "It is so bad that these things occur." Filner, who is running for mayor of San Francisco, has a novel plan to overhaul veterans' health care: he wants to make it more like the IRS.
"20 years or so, the IRS was totally dysfunctional," said Filner, a ranking member of the House Committee for Veterans Affairs. "Now, when you filed your 1040 on April 15th, if you had a refund coming, you would get it back in three weeks, guaranteed." Just as with the IRS, he argued, veterans' health care forms should be accepted subject to audit instead of needing to be approved. "Then they could get their check and get their life together, and move on right away."
VA groups largely oppose Filner's plan, which he said is because they are "tied in" to the current system and just want to tinker around the edges.
"We want to talk about the glory of the war, how patriotic it is, but we don't want to focus on the costs of war, what happens when these men and women come back," he said. "We don't want to pay too much attention to it, because it undercuts what every government wants, and that's support for the war it carries out."
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Hey guys-- Filner is running for Mayor of San Diego. That's a different city than San Francisco, I'm pretty sure.
Filner knows what the real problem is, he's one of the few that has voiced it in the past, but he is still in congress where the peoples reps don't demand, while they rubber stamp wars of choice and costs of off the books and borrowed as the deficit had already started rising with the quick wipeout of the surplus even before 9/11! His idea of just doing subject to audits is fine but that just doin cash needs to come out of the already decades long underfunded VA budget which takes it away from other needs long neglected and many ignored by the country!!
No Revenues {nor private capital economic investments, free market capitalism} = No Sacrifice = No Support = DeJa-Vu all over again!. Now a decade and counting, told to go shopping, added to the previous decades of under funding the VA, while the peoples reps Still try and lay blame on the Agency, after rubber stamping wars and costs of and those represented cheer on these wars!
While the wealthy and other investors garner their booty, still, from both and many have the chutz-pa to call themselves more patriotic{?} then others wrapped in those false flags, using false slogans and various cheap symbols of and then seek one day events or parades to wave all that patriotism, call it "Supporting the Troops", then go home and either ignore or forget about those that actually sacrificed for the country!
USN '67-'71 All Shore GMG3 Vietnam In Country '70-'71
I have heard Congressman Filner repetedly tell the VA, that if they need more money just ask. The VA refuses to ask for more money.
I've watched Rep. Filner for years. I hate to see him leave Congress because of his un relenting support for Veterans. Good Luck Rep. Filner. Thank You for your work for Veterans.
Kyle,
I too have followed Filner's record:
Filner has done NOTHING for Veterans such as me, he is a whiner who takes no ACTIONS.
Also do the math, our country cannot afford this hidden cost of war. A one million claims backlog equates to an additional $40 billion in annual VA Disability Pensions and this number does not include the increased health care costs.
America owes our Veterans an EARNED benefit- disability compensation is earned and is not an entitlement.
Filner sits on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, he is in a position to actually do something, such as introduce a bill to cover what he discusses above, but he has done nothing other than whine!
The fact that no congressman has sponsored a bill to change the VA disability Claims system tells me that people really do not care about veterans.
Actions speak louder than words and in this case our Politicians are deaf.
In theory, if we brought back an equitable military draft, then all social classes would suffer equally; but those of privilege would find a way to avoid the draft, just like Bush, Cheney, Clintons, Reid, Bohner, etc....
-A totally disabled service connected veteran
313 days for a claim is incorrect that's 10 months, a claim usually takes from one to five years and if you have to appeal it and it goes to the Board of Veterans Appeals in Washington try 5 to 15 years because of the Regional office mistakes which cause remand after remand after remand back to your Regional Office then sent back to the BVA to get back in line, it is not unusual to see Vietnam era Veterans with claims/appeals over 15 years.If the claim was done correctly the first time at the RO there would not be the problem with so many appeals which cause a log jam in the system.