Scores of news stories have noted the wonders of military medical care that have saved the lives of thousands of wounded troops and resulted in a new and growing wave of veterans who will need long-term care. Now a study has researched some of those costs and found a system unprepared for what’s coming. Congress should pay close attention.

Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard this month concluded that, “while it is welcome news and a credit to military medicine that more soldiers are surviving grievous wounds, the existence of so many veterans, with such high level injuries, is yet another aspect of this war for which the Pentagon and the Administration failed to plan, prepare and budget.” The report notes that as of Sept. 30, 2006, more than 50,500 U.S. troops serving in Iraq had suffered nonfatal injuries.

That is a ratio of more than 16 wounded service members for every fatality, compared with ratios in the Vietnam and Korean wars of 2.6 and 2.8 respectively.

That has meant not only an increase of 200,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan visiting VA medical facilities – more than a third suffering from mental health conditions, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress syndrome – but that the number is three times the amount projected by the VA.

Adding to the problem, says Ms. Bilmes, is that the Veterans Benefits Administration has a backlog of 400,000 claims – holding up checks by six months to two years. And that the lifetime costs of the care veterans need and deserve is estimated between $300 billion and $600 billion, depending on how much longer the war lasts. Congress must appropriate more money to ensure veterans’ services are fully available, but Ms. Bilmes observes, the VA also must work smarter.

For instance, instead of reviewing every claim, which takes time and results in 88 percent being accepted anyway, she suggests accepting all claims and then auditing a sample, as the Internal Revenue Service does. Alternatively, she proposes making a greater distinction among claims and fast-tracking the straightforward ones so that veterans with clear needs for services get them faster.

The VA has told Congress that it must prepare for the surge of wounded soldiers, and members of Congress have discussed it too. The value of this new research is that it offers different and potentially more affordable ways to deliver services more effectively and efficiently.

It is worth Congress’s time to consider it.