Wednesday, April 20, 2011

WHAT EXACTLY DOES "Support Our Troops" MEAN?


Please forgive me if I seem a bit angry in this, the season of the greatest Christian Sacrifice, Easter, but the article quoted below brought to mind a number of other travesties concerning "Our Troops."

When we failed to supply our Troops with 
proper body armor or effective helmets;

when we neglected to arm our Troops with 
appropriately armored vehicles;

when we refuse to care for them properly when they are injured;

when we don't let them out of the service 
once they've completed their term;
  
what does 'support' mean?

Paying for the flag we give their next of kin?





[I]nsurance coverage for treatment of brain trauma injuries is spotty and unpredictable. 

One key therapy is not offered to troops, a glaring deficiency in military health care that investigative outlet Pro Publica has been persistently exposing for months. 

Now Rep. Giffords' office is making the case for brain trauma rehab to be included in the health-reform law, setting up the possibility that Giffords' injury—already a human interest story—could become a political one as well. . . .



[I]n the important next phase of Giffords’ recovery—months of intensive rehabilitation aimed at maximizing her quality of life—Giffords is receiving a level of care unattainable by thousands of Americans who have been wounded on the actual battlefield. That’s because the costly treatment Giffords is receiving at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at Memorial-Herman is being paid for by the federal government, but such care for U.S. troops is not.

... Most military personnel ... are covered by an insurance plan called TRICARE, which does not cover key elements of cognitive rehabilitation therapy. As revealed in a series of investigative reports by the non-profit news enterprise, ProPublica, TRICARE claims that the benefits of cognitive rehabilitation therapy are not well enough established to warrant providing it to troops. TRICARE bases this assertion on the findings of a study commissioned by TRICARE itself, and which ProPublica’s reporting has found to be “deeply flawed.”




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