Obama, McCaskill want more help for veterans’ medical care

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Concerned that soldiers battling in Iraq wind up fighting their own government for adequate medical care when they return home, two Democratic senators said Tuesday they’re joining together on reform legislation.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said they are working on legislation to improve veterans’ care, including reforms to how they are treated as outpatients while still active military members.

The legislation would require more frequent hospital inspections, establish timelines for repairs to facilities that don’t meet standards and improve access to psychological counseling, Obama’s office said in a statement.

It aims to simplify the amount of paperwork, improve the ratio of caseworkers to recovering soldiers and step up caseworkers’ training, the senators said.

“Basically, this legislation will try to force feed the kind of care that we all want these men and women to have after they have fought in Iraq,” McCaskill said at a news conference in St. Louis.

Read the rest at NBC News.

~ by Anthony on February 21, 2007.