Printer Friendly Page
HOUSE VETS' CHAIR PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR RIO
GRANDE
VALLEY VA HOSPITAL -- Rep. Bob Filner: "You
should not
have to fight the VA for the care that you need
after
serving your country. It's up to your country
to
do for you, and we're going to do that."
Veterans in 2006 march for a VA hospital
in the Rio Grande Valley.
For more on Rio Grande Valley veterans, use the VA Watchdog search
engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=rio+grande&op=ph
For more on Bob Filner, use the VA Watchdog search
engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=filner&op=and
Story here...
http://www.chron.com/
disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5031643.html
Story below:
-------------------------
Filner pledges support for VA hospital on
border
By LYNN BREZOSKY Associated Press Writer
DONNA, Texas — The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee
promised a crowd of about 1,000 veterans Monday that he would back
legislation to bring a hospital to the Rio Grande Valley to care for
their needs.
"You should not have to fight the V.A. for the care that you need after
serving your country," U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., told the spirited
crowd that applauded his promise. "It's up to your country to do for
you, and we're going to do that."
Veterans in the Valley have been fighting for a hospital for decades and
have had to make trips to San Antonio, nearly five hours away for
treatment.
Filner's promise came at a "town hall" meeting where the veterans were
lining up to tell four members of Congress about their hardships in
getting medical care.
In the past, veterans have told of spending nights in their car while
the anesthesia from surgery wore off, of becoming ill on the long drive
home or the uncomfortable trip in a van despite myriad health problems
for routine procedures such as colonoscopies or even a new pair of
diabetic shoes. A cancer patient spent months away from his wife with
the couple's only car because the Veterans Administration wouldn't pay
to put her in a motel room.
Two outpatient clinics are now set up in the Valley and there are also
private clinics under contract with the government, but veterans say it
can take three to six months for an appointment.
The veterans were outraged by a February 2004 study by the Department of
Veterans Affairs commission that determined only 10 beds were needed for
the Rio Grande Valley and the Coastal Bend, which includes Corpus
Christi.
In 2005, hundreds of them joined a protest march to San Antonio.
The results of another government study are pending.
U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said he was tired of studies.
Along with U.S. Reps. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, Henry Cuellar,
D-Laredo, and others, he has sponsored a bill that could create a
public-private venture to provide health and long term care at an
existing facility; build a new, 50-bed hospital with a 125-bed nursing
home; or set up an agreement with the Defense Department to share a
facility to provide care. The bill is pending in the committee that
Filner chairs.
Ortiz said he had been introducing the bill for each of the more than 20
years that he has been in Congress, and with bills in both houses of
Congress and support from Filner, it for the first time looked like it
might become law.
Ortiz's comments prompted audience catcalls to change from "Let the
people speak" to friendlier calls of "Sign the bill, Bob," and "Bob,
you're the man."
Filner said that the anticipated rush of Iraq war veterans combined with
the exposure of shoddy treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington, D.C., has meant an infusion of new funds to the Veterans
Administration.
While Walter Reed is a military hospital, he said, "All of America
suddenly got it — that we were not serving the veterans the way they
thought we were."
He told the veterans they would not be forgotten as the new funding is
allocated.
-------------------------
Larry Scott --
