Minnesota 1st District Representative Tim Walz, a member of the House Veterans Affairs committee, reacts to revelations about the medical care of wounded soldiers in the wake of the Walter Reed Medical Center scandal.
Walz, and others, feel the Walter Reed situation may be just the most visible problems within the military health care system as more wounded come back from Iraq and Afghanistan.
SPEAKER 1: I guess the tragic part about this was is that, this was expected. We saw that the cuts and the inability of this administration to plan for these costs that were going to come with this war were never addressed. And so what we're concern is, is that this is going to be just the very beginning of what's going to be a tragic domino effect down through our VA system.
SPEAKER 2: The Bush administration, though has increased its request for money for military healthcare in the '08 budget. How much of this is a budget problem versus something systemic?
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, I think it's a little of both. I think what's happened is that the budget problem started to lead to some of these collapses, and we're seeing some as the base realignment and closures had Walter Reed scheduled to close. They were having a very difficult time getting the resources they needed and getting the personnel they needed to stay there as they were starting to move the consolidate the operation over to Bethesda. And that's the same thing that's happening across the country, and you start to lose morale and you start to put the workload on a very few people.
They're doing a fantastic job the caregivers. And the physicians and nurses out in the hospitals, but they're under tremendous stress, and then it starts to become a morale issue and it just all falls apart.
SPEAKER 2: You mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, you think this could be the tip of the iceberg? What are you hearing about some of the VA care centers in Minnesota? Do you have any concerns? Say in Saint-Cloud or in Minneapolis?
SPEAKER 1: No. At this time, I sure don't. And I can't speak with them about the Saint-Cloud facility as much as I can about Minneapolis. I visited that often. And I have nothing but the highest praise for the facility and for the work that's being done there.
SPEAKER 2: And there's a lot of outrage on Capitol Hill among Democrats and Republicans. Yet, where was the Congressional oversight of the military healthcare system, which failed to uncover these problems?
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, I would argue that we failed too. And one of the problems is that, people like myself over the last two months, right away when the situation in Saint-Cloud came up, my fear was and my comments were that just prepare yourself for more of this because the system is taxed to the limit and you're going to start to see this. Whatever the outcome of that particular situation was, I knew that we were going to see more of it.
SPEAKER 2: You mentioned the Saint-Cloud situation, can you expand on that?
SPEAKER 1: Yeah. They're still looking into it, and the investigation on that what came up on that was early reports was that Jonathan Soltz an Iraq war veteran was back, and was experiencing some problems and was seeking care in the early reports were that he was being turned away. That hasn't been confirmed yet.
But either way, it brought to light what was something that many of us had been fearing and talking about was is that the system was unprepared for these large number of cases, especially those hidden injuries.
Those traumatic brain injuries that weren't quite so obvious, and then post-traumatic stress. And so when that got mentioned that there might have been a problem there, whether it turns out that Jonathan was turned away or not, there will be ones that will be turned away.
SPEAKER 2: What do you think Congress is going to do then to address the poor conditions? And care at these facilities?
SPEAKER 1: Well, I think what's going to first is to assess how serious it is. And then the first thing that has to happen is there has to be a short term solution to prepare for immediately tomorro. This is not something that we can have another commission and we can put off longer.
And then I think you're going to see broader hearings over what is the role of the VA? And why are we still continuing every year to have our veterans come to Capitol Hill to lobby for money that never gets to the point where they need it? I think the issue of mandatory funding is going to come up once again on let's decide how much we need, and let's make sure it's there-- So that we don't have these shortfalls.
SPEAKER 2: How much money do you think this is going to cost?
SPEAKER 1: Well, I would think quite a bit, because right now, what's happening is that we have that piled on effect of years of neglect. And now what they're doing over at Walter Reed is they're slapping on a little paint, but that money's coming out of the fund to run the hospital. So they're going to have to come back and ask us for money to take care of the soldiers end of things.
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