VCS / VUFT Lawsuit: What is Long-Term Meaning of Victory for Our Veterans?

If any of our readers are veterans with their own ideas on how to fix the agency, we welcome hearing from them.

Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense is a Gulf War veteran. Courtesy: Veterans Today

(AUSTIN, Tx. Austin American-Statesma) - It’s no secret that veterans face long, and sometimes interminable, delays in getting health care and disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But this week, a federal appeals court took the extraordinary step of ruling that the VA is violating the constitutional rights of veterans when it forces them to wait weeks for critical mental health care and years for disability benefits.

The historic decision, which came largely as a result of the efforts of an Austin veteran’s organization, has the potential to radically change the way the VA provides care to veterans.

Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and Austin resident who runs Veterans for Common Sense, (which brought the original suit against the VA along with California-based Veterans United for Truth in 2007), calls the court’s decision “huge.”

“This is a landmark, precedent-setting case that means our veterans have a constitutional right to due process when fighting for VA health care and disability compensation,” Sullivan said. “We are making them do their job.”

The court’s decision is a scathing indictment of VA shortcomings almost a decade into the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and details the difficulty many veterans have in getting mental health attention. “For some veterans, most notably those suffering from combat-derived mental illnesses such as PTSD, these delays may make the difference between life and death,” wrote Judge Stephen Reinhardt.

Reinhardt, considered a liberal stalwart on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, added that the court was forced to rule because of political inaction. “We would have preferred Congress or the President to have remedied the VA’s egregious problems without our intervention when evidence of the Department’s harmful shortcomings and its failure to to properly address the needs of our veterans first came to light years ago,” he wrote.

Among the court’s specific criticisms: the VA failed to implement its strategy to reduce epidemic suicide numbers among veterans and has not staffed suicide prevention officers at the VA’s 800 outpatient clinics (where most veterans go for their care.) Austin’s VA clinic on Montopolis Drive remains without a suicide prevention officer, VA officials said Wednesday.

But what does the momentous decision mean for veterans and their families? The short answer is that no one knows quite yet. And the VA could appeal the decision, which broke down 2-1, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The district court that initially ruled in favor of the VA, argued that the remedies sought by the veteran plaintiffs would “call for a complete overhaul of the VA system.”

A White House spokesman said Wednesday that the VA and Justice Department “will work closely to address any of the issues raised by the court.”

UT Law School professor William Forbath said the decision taps into a “legacy going back to the Warren Court of using the powers of the federal courts to challenge the way states and the federal government runs schools, prisons and mental hospitals.”

Veterans for Common Sense has proven to be an effective thorn in the side of the VA over the years, helping to force the department to release data on PTSD diagnoses and wait times, simplify its claims forms and provide more help to veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome.

Sullivan on Wednesday called on President Barack Obama and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to sit down with veterans, members of congress and academic experts and “fix VA.”

If any of our readers are veterans with their own ideas on how to fix the agency, we welcome hearing from them.

Special thanks to: Austin American-Statesman

Source: Veterans for Common Sense