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Report: Veterans health care costs around $650 billion

06:14 PM PST on Thursday, November 8, 2007

By CHRIS DANIELS / KING 5 News and KING5.com Staff Report

Veterans' health care costs could exceed war costs

SEATTLE - Senator Patty Murray and a group of docotors released a new report Thursday that estimates health care costs for our returning soldiers at $650 billion.

The Physicians for Social Responsibility, an anti-war group, put together the report. One of the researchers is a University of Washington psychiatrist who has worked extensively with injured soldiers.

Murray plans on using the report's data to reignite the debate on how much money should be spent to take care of injured vets in Seattle and around the country.

"This report should serve as a wake up for Americans and this administration. While we endlessly debate what we are gaining in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and their families are falling victim to death, post-war trauma and lifelong struggles with mental and physical wounds as a legacy of this war. The U.S. needs to bring its troops home now,” said Dr. Evan Kanter, author of the report.

Murray was expected to announce that as many as 30 percent of injured soldiers have suffered a traumatic brain injury and research on the subject is still lacking.

KING

Sen. Patty Murray

The data from the heavily cited new report written by the group of physicians also says Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among returning soldiers is high, perhaps around 20 percent.

Iraq war vets are more likely to suffer from serious mental health problems such as depression or anxiety attacks and are more likely to have a substance abuse disorder.

Murray claims the data shows the need for increasing veterans' health funding, which is the subject of heavy debate right now on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

The current VA funding bill that is before a Senate subcommittee puts the total budget for next year's VA funding around the $87 billion range.

Troops returning home after serving overseas are also among those most at risk of becoming homeless. According to a new report, veterans make up 25 percent of the entire homeless population.

The Veterans Department says at least 1,500 are homeless veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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