Still waiting, and waiting

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

The long wait time for disability claims to be processed has been a complaint among veterans since the early days of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Troops were sent into combat in both wars by the administration of President George W. Bush without necessary preparations, such as expanding the veterans hospitals that would be caring for the wounded and adding staff and facilities to the Veterans Affairs Department so that the inevitable disability claims could be handled efficiently.

The result has been eight years of disservice to members of the military who were sent into harm’s way.

A New York Times story Monday revealed that veterans are still waiting interminably to hear back on their disability claims — in a recession, no less, during which many are desperate to receive what they have earned.

Veterans groups are forcefully speaking out. “The VA’s claim situation is so bad that it is exacerbating veterans’ already difficult situations,” the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense told the newspaper.

The Times reported that the backlog for processing veterans’ disability claims, for psychological or physical injuries connected to their military service, now stands at 400,000, up from 253,000 six years ago.

“We know that veterans deserve better,” Michael Walcoff, VA deputy undersecretary for benefits, told the paper.

Many of the claims are being filed by Vietnam veterans, whose past injuries are now being aggravated by age. One of the most common claims, among all veterans, is for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

This has led Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., to propose legislation, estimated to cost nearly $5 billion over 10 years, that would grant PTSD claims for veterans if they simply prove they served in a combat zone.

Although this sounds as if it would speed processing, there is a real danger that the volume of claims would vastly increase, requiring even more time to process.

The VA is actually going in the right direction. It recently hired an additional 4,300 claims processors, although it will take months to get them trained. Congress should assess this latest hiring, and if it turns out to be insufficient, more rounds of hiring should take place until the backlog is under control.