Obama Announces Vets e-Records System

President Barack Obama today announced plans to provide service members with an electronic health records system that will follow them from the day they put up their hands to serve until the day they die.

The joint Defense Department-Veterans Affairs project is included in the president's proposed 2010 budget and is intended to make the transition from active duty to veterans status more efficient for those who will continue to use VA healthcare.

"This streamlined transition doesn't exist now, and that results in hardship for a lot of veterans who end up finding records are lost and who do not get their benefits in a timely fashion," Obama said shortly after noon today at a White House press conference. In some instances, he said, veterans "found it almost impossible to get the benefits they earned despite the fact their disabilities or needs were evident for all to see."

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Obama was joined at the press conference by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, a former Army chief of staff. Also in attendance was Tammy Duckworth, an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost both her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq. Duckworth has been nominated to be assistant secretary of public and intergovernmental affairs at the VA.

Obama said his 2010 budget includes $25 billion more for the Department of Veterans Affairs over the next five years. The money will also include funding for other new or expanding programs, among these efforts to treat veterans with mental health issues and those who suffer from brain injuries -- one of the signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This budget approves services for cognitive injuries," he said, noting that many veterans "with these injuries have never been evaluated" by a doctor.

Obama also cited the needs of thousands of veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, the rising increase of suicides among veterans, and the problem of some 154,000 veterans who are homeless (not homelessness).

In all, he said, some 500,000 veterans who previously have been denied health care will get it, including through the use of mobile clinics that will reach veterans in rural areas.

The streamlined records system also will help alleviate a six-month backlog of disability claims, according to Obama.

"We have a sacred trust with those who wear the uniform of the United States of America, a commitment that begins with enlistment and must never end," he said. "But we know that for too long we've fallen short of meeting that commitment. Too many wounded warriors go without the care that they need."

An estimated 33,000 service members have been wounded or injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also at the announcement was Paul Rieckhoff, executive director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who released a statement calling Obama's plan "bold action" on key promises Obama made to veterans while campaigning for president: advance funding for VA healthcare and overhauling the military-to-VA transition process.
 
"With this initiative, President Obama is finally bringing VA and DOD healthcare into the 21st century," Rieckhoff said.