Pentagon Health Plan Won't Cover Brain-Damage Therapy for Troops

Pentagon health plan wont cover brain-damage therapy for troops
Stumble This! During the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation Therapy -- a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life tasks such as counting, cooking or remembering directions to get home. Many neurologists, several major Insurance Companies and even some medical facilities run by the Pentagon agree that the Therapy can help people whose functioning has be...

Pentagon Health Plan Won't Cover Brain-Damage Therapy for Troops
by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR Dec. 20, 2010, 2 a.m. Versions of this story were co-published with NPR [1] and Stars and Stripes [2]. For more coverage, listen to NPR's All Things Considered [3] starting today at 4 p.m. During the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation Therapy -- a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life ta...

Battle over science, money blocks widely recommended TBI therapy
WASHINGTON — Over the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation Therapy — a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life tasks like counting, cooking and remembering directions to get home. Neurologists, several major Insurance companies and even some medical facilities run by the Pentagon agree that the Therapy can help people whose functioning has ...

Pentagon Plan Won't Cover Brain-Damage Therapy
Source: All Things Considered, NPR Tricare denies coverage based on study criticized as flawed by scientists in confidential reviews. Read more: https://www.npr.org/2010/12/20/132145959/pentagon-health... ...

Mary Claire Kendall: Give thanks to our veterans
This Holiday Season, consider the gift of freedom our Veterans and today's Troops have given our nation -- communities, families, and each of us individually. It's a reality that veterans' organizations work tirelessly to honor. For instance, every November, American Veterans Centers (www.americanveteranscenter.org/) brings heroes of wars past and present together for a weekend recollecting freedom's price. This year's conference, sponsored by The Washington Examiner, featured legends from the ...

Military will write the rules on repeal of gay ban
WASHINGTON – No public displays of affection. No separate bathrooms. No harassment and no special treatment. As the U.S. Military begins to map out how it will implement the new edict allowing gays to serve openly, the first order of business is drafting the regulations. The rule changes under discussion won't dictate how Troops feel about the change, but will strictly enforce how they act on it. From small wording tweaks and training programs to more complex questions about benefits and...

How Our FOIA Request Was Blocked, and Why Were Still Pursuing It
A version of this story was co-published with NPR. For more coverage, listen to NPR's All Things Considered starting today at 4 p.m. and check out Stars and Stripes. In May 2009, the Pentagon asked a nonprofit company to study cognitive rehabilitation Therapy, a painstaking and often expensive treatment program to help Soldiers with brain injuries relearn tasks of daily living. The $21,000 study, conducted by Pennsylvania-based ECRI Institute, found limited evidence that the therapy is effectiv...

Investigator: Billions in aid wasted in Afghanistan
Of that sum, some $29 billion has gone to building up Afghanistan's nascent security forces, many of whose members cannot read and are just learning to shoot. Another $16 billion has gone to trying to develop this poor country, where life expectancy is just 45 years and only 28 percent of people are literate, and to strengthening governance, said Fields, a retired Marine Corps major general. Experts believe it will take years to build an effective government that can provide basic services in Af...

Obama plans to sign repeal of gay ban Wednesday
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says President Barack Obama will sign the Repeal of the Military's ban on Openly Gay service members on Wednesday morning at a Department of Interior auditorium. With a stroke of his pen, the president will end the Pentagon's 17-year, "don't-ask, don't tell" policy. In repealing the ban, Obama will fulfill a 2008 Presidential Campaign promise. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs would not say how long it would take for the administration to implement the repeal. But ...

Gay service members advised to wait before coming out
Advocates are advising Military gays to stay in the closet for now, as the Pentagon begins months of scene-setting to make sure removing the ban does not hurt combat readiness. Once President Obama signs the gay-ban Repeal, passed by Congress last week, it will trigger a new phase that will see the Pentagon dictate to commanders how to prepare Troops for the historic social change. During that time, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban will remain in effect. "The bottom line, for now, gay, Lesbian an...

Leadership key to ending military gay ban (AP)
WASHINGTON – No public displays of affection. No separate bathrooms. No harassment and no special treatment. As the U.S. Military begins to map out how it will implement the new edict allowing gays to serve openly, the first order of business is drafting the regulations. The rule changes under discussion won't dictate how Troops feel about the change, but will strictly enforce how they act on it. From small wording tweaks and training programs to more complex questions about benefits and...

War In Afghanistan News 20 Dec 2010 - War On Terror News
The Groundtruth from a combat Veteran, backed up by independent research and historical study. Information beneficial to the Troops. And a touch of objective politics, as it relates to the subjects at hand. This site is unabashedly Pro-American and Pro-Military however none of the views expressed here are to be considered as endorsed, proposed, or supported by the Department of Defense or any other Agency, government, public, or private. https://waronterrornews.typepad.com/ To have the Daily ...

Witness at the White House Fence
(Photo by Cheryl Biren) The witness was sponsored by Veterans for Peace, a group comprised of many former Soldiers who have "been there, done that" regarding war, distinguishing them from President Barack Obama who, like his predecessor, hasn't a clue what war is really about. (Sorry, Mr. President, donning a bomber jacket and making empty promises to the Troops in the middle of an Afghan night does not qualify.) The simple but significant gift of presence was being offered outside the White...

Politico Encourages Obama to Rule by Executive Order
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com Allegiance to the U.S. Constitution has fallen so far that members of the Establishment media are encouraging Barack Obama to bypass Congress and rule through Executive Orders. The most recent encouragement came in the form of an article posted today on the inside-the-Beltway website Politico entitled “Obama 2.0: Reinventing a Presidency.” The authors, John F. Harris and James Hohmann, state that negotiating with the new Congress — elected by the...

Truth be Told: Boehner is a Traitor to His Class
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 6:50pm. Our future Speaker of the House John Boehner isn't afraid to cry in public. He readily admits to being an emotional man. His friends and colleagues all know it and accept it and he's not about to change. But what does he cry about? During his Victory Speech on Election Night, Boehner teared up as he spoke about being a Working Class stiff who has been chasing the American Dream all his life. Now that he's gotten hold of the brass ring, however...

A Plan to Make Homelessness History
Fixes looks at solutions to social problems and why they work. Tags: Homelessness This is a story about a plan to end chronic homelessness in the United States. It’s not an indeterminate “war on homelessness,” but a methodical approach to do away with a major social problem. Each day, roughly 700,000 people in the country are Homeless. About 120,000 are chronically Homeless. They often live on the streets for years and have mental disabilities, Addiction problems and life-threatening dis

S.F. health care obligations a ticking time bomb
The numbers grow larger, but the problem is the same. San Francisco faces runaway health obligations for its city workers, a financial burden that must be fixed or else layoffs, growing Deficits and higher taxes will surely follow. A report from City Controller Ben Rosenfield puts the future Health Care bill for city workers and Retirees at $4.36 billion. Only a handful of workers pay into the Health Care pot - those hired after 2008 - while the rest pay nothing. That's right - some 54,000 re...

Proclaiming Victory, Predicting Failure: The Obama Administrations Bizarre Afghanistan Promise
In high profile comments made only yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden declared that the United States was on the verge of victory in Afghanistan, and that the United States and its 100,000 occupation Troops would be “totally out of there, come hell or high water, by 2014.” Its a promise, at least as close as the Vice President could come without using the actual word “promise,” but it is one which every single report and every single official statement, beyond a couple...

S.1334 - James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009
James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health the World Trade Center Health Program (WTC program) to provide: (1) medical monitoring and treatment benefits to eligible emergency responders and recovery and cleanup workers who responded to the World Trade Center Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001; and (2) initial health evaluation, monitoring, and treatment benefits t...

Basic Information about Chromium in Drinking Water
EPA regulates Chromium in Drinking Water to protect Public Health. Chromium may cause Health Problems if present in public or private water supplies in amounts greater than the Drinking Water standard set by EPA. What is Chromium (total)? Uses for Chromium (total). What are Chromium (total)'s health effects? What are EPA's Drinking Water Regulations for Chromium (total)? How does Chromium (total) get into my drinking water? How will I know if Chromium (total) is in my drinking water? How will ch...

HIV/AIDS patients scrambling to cover cost of medications
For the first time in two decades, a sharp increase in enrollment has forced Virginia's medication assistance program for low-income, Uninsured HIV and AIDS patients to limit who it serves. Like several states, Virginia is struggling to accommodate increased need, which has been driven by a lagging economy, more HIV testing and diagnosed cases, and patients living longer on available treatments. An estimated 760 of the patients with more stable immune systems will transition from Virginia's AIDS...

Quote of the day
I found this quote at News Busters from Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio: I want to say one thing about the Budget that didn’t get passed, the Omnibus Bill. You know, we talk a lot about - we just passed this huge Tax Cut in part because business said, you know, we have to plan, we have to know what kind of tax cuts we have. Well, these agencies, including the Defense Department, don’t know how much money they’ve got and for what. And I was at - forgive the expression

Marines: 67% Say Putting Homosexuals in Their Units Will Hurt Their Effectiveness in the Field
66.5 percent of U.S. Marine combat forces surveyed by a special Defense Department working group said that putting Homosexuals in their units would hurt their effectiveness in the field, and 47.8 percent of Marines in combat units specifically said putting Homosexuals in their units would hurt their effectiveness “in an intense combat situation.” The U.S. Congress voted last week to Repeal the law—commonly known as Don’t Ask, Don’ Tell—that barred ho...

67 Percent of Marine Combat Forces Say Putting Homosexuals in Their Units Will Hurt Their Effectiveness in the Field, Says DOD R
Monday, December 20, 2010 By Terence P. Jeffrey A U.S. Marine Corps sergeant in action in Sangin, Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2010. (Defense Department photo/Lance Cpl. Dexter S. Saulisbury, U.S. Marine Corps) (CNSNews.com) - 66.5 percent of U.S. Marine combat forces surveyed by a special Defense Department working group said that putting Homosexuals in their units would hurt their effectiveness in the field, and 47.8 percent of Marines in combat units specifically said putting Homosexuals in t...

'Don't ask': Obama praises Senate's gay ban repeal
(12-19) 04:00 PST Washington - -- The Senate voted to abolish the 17-year-old ban on gays and Lesbians in the Military known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on Saturday, ending a tumultuous chapter in American Civil Rights history and the last bastion of legal Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation. Eight moderate Republicans joined 55 Democrats and two Independents in a final vote of 65-31 to pass a stand-alone bill that was protected from legislative attack by a special procedure devised by H...