Editorial: Error mustn’t cost veterans

Monday, Sept. 25, 2006 | 7:17 a.m.

Before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, the Defense Department estimated what it would cost to care for members of the military who became injured. In another example of how the Bush administration misjudged the length and intensity of the wars, particularly in Iraq, the estimates were far below the true casualty rate.

For reasons that are not clear, but most likely human error, Veterans Affairs officials used these estimates in preparing the department's budgets for last year and this year.

In using old estimates that were way off the mark, the VA greatly miscalculated how many troops would need care. About 160,000 more troops than they had budgeted for needed, or will need, medical attention for injuries sustained in 2005 and 2006, the Government Accountability Office found.

According to a story by McClatchy Newspapers, the VA says it "substantially agrees" with the report by the GAO. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, said, "It belies common sense to believe they relied on numbers that were pre-Iraq." Another member of the committee, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the VA told the White House that it would need an extra $1 billion a year for the next 10 years to compensate for its mistake.

No matter how the mistake was made, the federal government must ensure that no veteran receives substandard care because of it.

If $10 billion more than originally anticipated is needed for veteran care, so be it.