Team Obama using Sequestration to Short Change Our Veterans in need of Medical Services at Military Hospitals

Patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other premier military hospitals are being sent to private doctors and having surgery and other treatment delayed because of furloughs to medical personnel, according to interviews and internal documents. 

"Please show (patients) the utmost understanding and care while we are asking them to accept longer wait times and in some cases, curtailed or limited services," Rear Adm. Alton Stocks, hospital commander, told staff in a July 12 message.

A "colleagues" memo issued in recent days says inpatient beds are in "critically short supply" because of furloughs of civilian staff triggered by federal spending cuts known as sequestration. 

[...] 

The Pentagon's top medical official, Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, called the cuts illogical and a significant threat.

"We simply cannot continue to sustain the burdens placed on the military medical system if sequester remains the law of the land," Woodson says. "The men and women who have fought tirelessly on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan ... deserve much, much more than this." 

Thomas said that by sending patients to a network of private doctors who contract with the government for services, the Pentagon will spend more money in order to compensate for the automatic spending cuts. 

"As we curtail ... we will inevitably refer more care out to the network," he says. "We'll end up spending more money in the long run."

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