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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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Injured GIs Pledged Better Care

Commission calls for overhaul of military health system

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(Newser) – The military health care system is inadequate to treat the casualties of  two modern wars and the nation should immediately move to overhaul it, a bipartisan presidential commission concluded yesterday. The panel called for improvements in treatment of brain injuries and post traumatic stress syndrome, as well as changes in procedures for determining disability status and benefits

The overhaul is expected to cost $500 million a year in the short term, and rise to as much as $1 billion annually as veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq wars age. The panel was established after embarrassingly poor care was uncovered at Walter Reed Hospital; President Bush said he has directed the Pentagon to implement the panel's 35 recommendations.

President Bush meets with the co-chairs of the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, both not shown, Wednesday, July 25, 2007, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP...
President Bush meets with the co-chairs of the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, and former Health and Human Services Secretary...   (Associated Press)
A group of wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, watch as President Bush, not shown, walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, May 18, 2007, to the Marine One helicopter. The president was going to Richmond, Va., then onto his ranch in Crawford,...
A group of wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, watch as President Bush, not shown, walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, May 18, 2007, to the Marine One...   (Associated Press)
Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, left, and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, both co-chairs of the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, listen to witness testimony in Washington, Monday, June 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, left, and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, both co-chairs of the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors,...   (Associated Press)
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Wounded Warriors

Commission's recommendations
Washington Post

Investigation that led to the creation of the commission
Washington Post

Full text of the report posted on the commission's website
President's Commission on Care for


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Robert Gates • Jim Nicholson • Walter Reed Army Medical Center • Wounded Warriors • Bob Dole • Donna E. Shalala • PTSD

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