Betrayed veterans

Veterans, once again, are outraged. They are promised that the health care system they earned in uniform is becoming more efficient, more responsive to their needs. Yet the wait for appointments is getting longer, as are the bus rides to specialists. The familiar, trusted caregivers are getting laid off. The empty promises are getting old.

They are outraged, with good reason, and not just in Maine, not just about Togus. The same angry protests seen here are occurring everywhere. Vets in Iowa, Montana, upstate New York and other regions that, like Maine, have stagnant populations, are told the declines in service they experience are the result of scarce resources — staff and money — being shifted to growing regions. Vets in Texas, Nevada and other growing regions are told the declines they experience are the result of scarce resources not being shifted.

The betrayal starts at the top. President Clinton reveres veterans. He is fully aware that overall health care costs are rising sharply and that ailments among aging veterans are becoming more complex and expensive to treat. Yet he proposes flat funding for the VA hospitals.

Congress also reveres veterans. Yet, when given the choice of increasing VA funding to a significant and realistic degree or of keeping unneeded military bases open, Congress chooses the unneeded bases.

The VA itself may be a victim of this political game, but it doesn’t help itself by being so unresponsive to veterans’ concerns or, when it does respond, so vague.

It’s been nearly five months since the VA inspector general released a long-overdue, detailed assessment of the shortcomings at Togus, yet Maine veterans still do not have a straightforward explanation of how those shortcomings will be addressed. Or of how a $500,000-a-month belt-tightening at Togus starting in the fall will be accomplished. How drug and lab costs will be reduced. How 17 jobs can be cut in a hospital already severely understaffed and how the workload of those who remain can be increased when they’re already overworked.

It’s been nearly five months since veterans obtained a VA document that appears to be a blueprint for closing small, rural hospitals; hospitals without the considerable benefits of being associated with medical schools; hospitals like Togus. VA says it’s not a blueprint, but won’t say exactly what it is. Other documents strongly suggest that the primary concern among top VA officials is shielding veterans from the truth, not fighting for them.

This charade of praising veterans a few patriotic holidays a year and shunning them the rest of the time must stop. The veterans’ community is awash in rumor and bitterness, the inevitable consequences of answering direct questions with doubletalk.

It’s time for straight talk and the place to start is Congress — with full-blown hearings. If the greatest legislative body on the planet can devote days, even weeks, to magazine sweepstakes and TV violence, it surely can spare a few moments for an honest debate on how this nation will treat its veterans.