Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Veterans sue Rumsfeld over medical cutbacks
Associated Press
Published May 25, 2005
WASHINGTON - Residents of a retirement home for war veterans filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying the Pentagon chief has imposed excessive and illegal cutbacks in medical and dental services.
The suit was filed in federal court on behalf of the nearly 1,000 residents at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, one of two such institutions managed by the Defense Department.
The home's chief financial officer, Steve McManus, said the residents who filed the complaint do not fully understand the reasons for some of the changes.
"We're really trying to improve the benefits for our residents and create the foundation for the financial stability of the Armed Forces Retirement Home," McManus said. The budget for operating the home has fallen from about $63-million last year to $58-million this year, he said.
The home's residents say Rumsfeld has a ready remedy for the financial problems that led to the cutbacks in services and staffing, but he has chosen not to act.
They said Congress gave the Pentagon authority in 1994 to increase one source of the home's operating funds - a 50-cent-per-month payroll deduction paid by every enlisted member and warrant officer in the military. Raising it to $1 per month would generate $7-million a year in new revenue, the suit says.
Among the cutbacks cited are the closing of the home's main clinic and an on-site pharmacy, elimination of on-site X-ray and electrocardiogram services and reductions in annual physicals as well as on-site dentists.
[Last modified May 25, 2005, 00:41:07]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
