By DOUG WILSON
Herald-Whig Senior Writer
Tammy Duckworth foresees a huge increase in the cost of caring for veterans.
As director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and a disabled Iraq War hero, Duckworth is in a unique position to see changing trends in the care of veterans. What she sees is a gradual reduction in the number of veterans, but with more serious injuries and greater costs.
"So many of our veterans are coming home with poly trauma," medical talk for those with multiple injuries or traumas, Duckworth said. "When my generation shows up, whether at a local hospital or at a veterans home, many of us are going to be very labor-intensive to take care of."
A decade ago, state and federal officials were preparing to pare down veterans programs. They predicted a huge reduction in the number of veterans seeking service. Today there are nearly 24 million veterans nationwide, but many of those are from World War II and the Korean War. As those veterans die, the numbers will fall quickly.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so far, have created about 1.6 million veterans. Yet nearly one quarter of those youngest veterans are collecting disability checks. That's a much higher rate than in the past.
Steve Smithson, a deputy director at the American Legion, told the Associated Press that today's veterans learn about the benefits they can receive and are more likely to file claims.
"It's not like the World War II generation and the Korean War generation, where they weren't aware of what they could file for," Smithson said.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that it spent $29 billion to care for about 24 million veterans. In 25 years, the Veterans Affairs projects, the number of veterans could fall to 15 million, but the costs are expected to be $59 billion a year or more. A Harvard study puts the conservative estimate of disability costs at $67 billion and the high range costs at $127 billion.
One reason for the rising costs is that more veterans are surviving wounds that were almost universally fatal for veterans in previous wars. As medical care has improved, so have survival rates.
Duckworth lost her legs in Iraq as she piloted a helicopter that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. She spent four months in a hospital bed and nine more months undergoing therapy. That care was only the start of what she will need in her lifetime.
"It costs $100,000 for one pair of prosthetic legs," Duckworth said.
The ratio of veterans with injuries also is much higher than in past wars. The Department of Defense reported 16 wounded veterans for every fatality through late 2006. The previous high ratio of wounded veterans to fatalities was reported during the Korean War, where there were 2.8 injuries for every death.
Veterans from the Vietnam era are entering care programs more frequently, as well. There are 947,000 Vietnam vets getting disability compensation. More than one quarter of those veterans have diabetes, much of it traced to exposure to Agent Orange.
Annual benefits for vets with disabilities can vary from about $1,400 for someone with a 10 percent disability to $44,000 for those with 100 percent disability.
The Rand Corp. recently conducted a study indicating that post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological disorders might drive future veterans care costs higher than expected. The study concluded that 27 percent of veterans finishing their third tours of duty show signs of PTSD, depression or other symptoms of psychological disorders.
One of the study's recommendations was to greatly expand the treatment of PTSD and depression within two years. Early treatment "would pay for itself within two years," the study's authors wrote.
The U.S. Department of Defense came up with its own report that says one in five returning veterans has some level of brain injury. The use of explosive devices in both Iraq and Afghanistan can leave "invisible wounds" that will affect these veterans for years.
One outward sign of these psychological wounds can be seen in the inordinately high rate of suicide for veterans between the ages of 20 and 24. In 2005, there were 120 successful suicides for vets in that age category. Hundreds more attempted suicide.
Duckworth said the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy could play an important role in providing care for veterans. She would like to see a federal Veterans Administration clinic or hospital in Quincy, because it takes two hours or more for veterans in the area to travel to the closest VA facilities. However, VA records do not show any plans for such a facility at this time.
-- dwilson@whig.com/221-3372
