Senator fields VA praise, criticism at meeting

The Department of Veterans Affairs medical and benefits system was the subject of stinging criticism -- and some praise -- from a group of about 50 veterans and other area residents who took part Friday in a town-hall meeting hosted by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

The meeting, at the VFW Post 3838 hall in Cape Girardeau, included a report by McCaskill that lawmakers will be pumping substantial new funding into the system -- $1.8 billion this year and $3.8 billion for the year beginning Oct. 1. And lawmakers in Washington are also working on comprehensive legislation to improve care and benefits for soldiers, veterans and their families, she said.

"Nobody should have to go over and fight for us and not come back and get no health care," McCaskill said.

McCaskill, a member of the Senate Armed Services Commmittee, said she decided to review veterans care in Missouri following the scandal over care for wounded soldiers housed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She said she visited the hospital after news of squalid living conditions surfaced and talked to the soldiers and their families. The tour of Missouri -- 14 stops in four days ending in Cape Girardeau -- is one of the lessons learned during those talks, she said.

"It taught me to make sure I listen to the people receiving treatment, not just those providing treatment," she said.

Part of the problem, Army veteran John Amelunke of Gordonville said, is that low-level staff at VA facilities such as the clinic housed in the Cape Girardeau Missouri Veterans Home are overwhelmed. The Cape Girardeau clinic, he said, provides help for 4,000 veterans with only two clerks to handle the paperwork and telephones.

Bob Monia Jr. of Cape Gir?ardeau said the clinic does good work with the resources at hand. But doctors are limited in the time they can spend with each patient, he said, making communication difficult.

"A lot of veterans are like me, they go in frustrated from the beginning," Monia said.

Records mix-ups, red tape and large numbers of young, wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan taking a heavy toll on the system are themes she heard all week, McCaskill said.

A staff review of care and facilities showed that most in Missouri are in good shape and striving to provide good care, McCaskill said. And she said VA officials have accompanied her to every meeting on her tour.

"They are trying to be helpful," McCaskill said. "They want to do better and have shown that by going along with us on this tour."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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