Printer Friendly Page
OUTRAGE OVER MEDICAL CARE OF VETERANS MAY SPUR
QUICK FIX -- But, the fix may be too quick as
Dole / Shalala
Commission report is due by the end of June.
Sen. Bob Dole
Sec. Donna Shalala
We have a problem.
The Dole / Shalala Commission is set to
have their first meeting on April 13. Their report is due by the
end of June.
This gives them a little over two months
to analyze the problems in the military and VA healthcare systems and
come up with solutions for their report.
Can that be done? No!
There's a nasty buzz making its way
around Capitol Hill that the report was "written" long ago...and the
"writers" have just been waiting for the right place and time to forward
their agenda.
Story here...
http://www.bloomberg.com/
apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=
au6Kgrpk8apU&refer=us
Story below:
---------------
Outrage Over Medical Care of U.S. Veterans May
Spur Quick Fix
By Julianna Goldman
(Bloomberg) -- At a recent Lennar Corp. board meeting, most of the
questions Donna Shalala received from fellow directors had nothing to do
with corporate governance or the financial performance of the
Miami-based homebuilder.
``They wanted to talk about Walter Reed and their outrage that American
soldiers would not get the absolute best treatment,'' said Shalala,
former U.S. secretary of health and human services and now president of
the University of Miami.
That kind of anger is fueling the special panel, headed by Shalala and
former Senator Robert Dole, to investigate reports of substandard care
for wounded veterans at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It
almost guarantees that, unlike some other recent high-profile
presidential commissions, this one's recommendations are likely to be
acted on quickly.
``With these wounded military people, it is a crisis,'' said Bill
Frenzel, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota and a veteran of
the commissions President George W. Bush appointed in his unsuccessful
efforts to overhaul the tax code and Social Security retirement system.
``I would be hard- pressed to suggest that anything is going to happen
to this group's report other than success.''
Decrepit Quarters
The Washington Post, in a series of articles this year, detailed how
wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan were being housed in decrepit
out-patient quarters and were suffering with bureaucratic ineptitude at
Walter Reed, the Army's premier medical facility. On March 6, the day
Bush appointed the panel, he called conditions at the hospital
``unacceptable.''
Not every commission begins with as much steam behind it as this one.
Blue-ribbon panels are a time-honored response to crises, from the
Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 to the war in Iraq. Many result more in
activity than action, with the final report collecting dust rather than
changing policy.
``You start these efforts with the full realization that your job is to
do the best you can given the scope of your authority to deliver a
report that reflects the situation,'' said Connie Mack, a former
Republican senator from Florida who served as co-chairman of Bush's 2005
tax advisory panel. ``Then what happens after that, it's beyond your
control.''
A Successful Example
The 1983 National Commission on Social Security Reform, named by
President Ronald Reagan and headed by Alan Greenspan, later the Federal
Reserve chairman, is widely regarded by historians as one of the most
successful examples of a presidential commission. The Walter Reed panel
shares at least one thing in common with that group: The crisis being
confronted is difficult to ignore.
When the Greenspan commission issued its report, outlining a bipartisan
fix for the financially ailing system, ``they had about 120 days before
they were not going to be able to pay the annuity check,'' said Frenzel,
78.
``Nobody could be against straightening out the situation at Walter
Reed,'' said Thomas Saving, director of the Private Enterprise Research
Center at Texas A&M University, who served on Bush's commission on
Social Security.
The Reed panel's first meeting is scheduled for April 14. Its deadline
is June 30, with the possibility of a 30-day extension.
Bipartisan
Like most commissions, this one is bipartisan and includes
representatives of constituencies most affected. Shalala, 66, is a
Democrat who served in former President Bill Clinton's Cabinet. Dole,
83, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, is a disabled veteran of
World War II, and two members of the panel were wounded in Iraq.
The White House and the Department of Defense put no limits on the scope
of the commission or its budget, according to Shalala. ``We've been told
that we can have whatever we need to get this job done,'' she said.
The solution will likely involve making changes in the sprawling
bureaucracies of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
Shalala said the commission will avoid getting mired by focusing only on
the care of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. ``We need to get in and
out of this,'' she said. ``We don't need to go into the long history of
the VA or DoD programs.''
Even if the commission delivers the right answers, a report alone will
fix nothing, said Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington
Institute, a defense policy research group in Arlington, Virginia.
``This is not going to be solved with a commission,'' he said. ``This is
going to be solved by doing three things: putting more money against the
problem, putting more people against the problem, and reforming the
process.''
Shalala says she believes there's little danger the panel's report will
be ignored. ``You can see it in my mail and what people tell me on the
street,'' she said. ``You can feel it, and I haven't felt that before on
commissions.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at
Jgoldman6@bloomberg.net
---------------
Larry Scott --
