Evening star., 1945-07-01
Non-Seryice Disability
Care May Be CurfaiIed
Al Veterans Hospitals
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.

Veterans without service connect
ed disability or sickness may lose
at least Temporarily, their right te
treatment in veterans hospitals.
This possibility developed on Cap
itol Hill yesterday as result Of the
situation disclosed at the House
Veterans Committee investigation OF
veterans hospitals.
Offlcials Of the Veterans Admins
tration pointed to the congestion
which will confront its hospitals as
increasing numbers of men are dis
charged from the armed forces,
many of them only to continue the
medical care which they have been
receiving in Army and Navy hos
pitfalls. Within the next two years,
the committee believed, veterans
hospitals, including many to be con-
structed or turned over by the Army,
are likely to overflow with cases of
veterans with wounds or service-in-
CURED maladies requiring prolonged
treatment.
says ACtiOn Is Necessary.
1--WE might as well face the
facts" Representative Scrivner, Re-
publican, of Kansas told the COM
mittee. However unpopular it may
be in our districts-and certainly it
will be-we've got to be realistic
about this situation. We're going
to have to curtail nonservice- con-
nected cases. It's not what we
want, but what has to be done.
We've got to take care Of all the
service connected cases. The vet
erans' hospitals won't be able to do
both, at least until the war is over
and the veterans hospitals are able
to get the personnel they need"
Chairman Rankin agreed. "We
are going to have to go back to the
policy we had in the 20s," he said.
I'VE then took care of service-con-
nected disabilities plus constitu-
tional diseases, such as tubercu-
losis and neuropsychiatric disor-
derS. There is no reason why we
should take care of every man who
gets sick and happens once to have
worn a uniform"
Mr.. Scrivner conceded that the
Government would have to care for
tubercular and mentally disturbed
veterans. But he felt that others
whose illness or injury did not date
back to military service might have
to look elsewhere for medical treat
ment until the critical shortage of
personnel and supplies in Govern
ment hospitals was eaSed.
Carnahan Offers Objection.
Representative Carnahan, Demo-
crat, of Missouri said he did not
accept that attitude" He added
that he thought I'VE should take
care of all the veterans, as we've
been doing"
Mr.. Scrivner replied that he also
wanted to provide medical care for
al veterans, and hoped any curtail-
ment would be only temporary, but
he did think Congress should face
the facts.
Present regulations give priority
10 veterans with service connected
injuries or disorders and provide
that others must await available
beds.
This requirement may be tight
e1ed, it appears, to the point where
the veterans with no service claim
will be excluded from veterans hos
pitals, in effect, until the present
situation changes.
The committee was advised that
most of the patients now in vet
erans' hospitals are veterans of
the last war whose illnesses or dis
abilities are not connected with
their fighting days. This picture
is gradually changing as more men
from the present war are discharged
and begin entering these hospitals.