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Oct 6, 2004 -
An influx of injured soldiers and Marines from the US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq has swamped the American veterans' disability benefits and health care systems, already burdened by decades of overloading and a reported backlog of over 300,000 claims, the Washington Post reports.
As of August 1, nearly 150,000 National Guard and reservist veterans who mobilized to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan had become eligible for health care and benefits. That number will continue to rise as fighting overseas continues.
Some veterans have reported long waits and confusing decisions over claims. Nevertheless, President Bush’s budget for 2005 will cut the Department of Veteran Affairs staff that handles benefits claims, further exacerbating the problem.
The most recent figures available show that in April, 26,633 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had filed benefit claims for service-related disabilities. Over a third of those claims had not been processed, leaving over 9,750 recent veterans without support.
--Barry Saunders
News Brief
