WASHINGTON — National Guardsmen and reservists who are injured on active duty face daunting and sometimes insurmountable hurdles to get medical care, soldiers and military officials told a congressional panel Thursday.

The troops described an Army bureaucracy that loses track of wounded reservists, drops medical coverage before some are healed and often inflicts hardships on families.

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, described the problems injured Guardsmen and reservists face as "the equivalent of financial and medical friendly fire."

The panel heard sometimes-emotional testimony from Guard soldiers who have been wounded in battle and administrators responsible for helping them navigate the medical system.

Gregory Kutz, a Government Accountability Office official who helped prepare a new report on deficiencies in Guard and reserve benefits, said that the Army has made improvements in treating Guard and reserve soldiers since 9/11. Still, he said, "many problems remain."

Among the shortcomings:

• The GAO said that soldiers, including many with severe injuries, are given little help navigating a thicket of regulations and procedures necessary to gain access to military doctors.
  
• Injured soldiers sometimes have to pay their own medical bills or go into debt because their active-duty tours end and they are physically unable to go back to their civilian jobs.
  
• As recently as April, more than one-third of injured soldiers who applied to have their benefits extended were denied.
  

Unlike active-duty soldiers and Marines, Guardsmen and reservists typically get access to military bases and hospitals only when they are called to active duty. Once they are injured, Guard and reserve troops frequently need approval to have their active-duty service extended so they can continue medical treatment.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have prompted the largest call-up of Guard and reserve troops since World War II and flooded the health care system with casualties. More than 185,000 Guardsmen and reservists are currently mobilized for active-duty missions in the USA and overseas.

The problems surfaced in late 2003 with a backlog of hundreds of injured Guardsmen and reservists at Army hospitals around the country. Some of them were forced to wait months to get medical attention.

The Army recently streamlined the process to allow Guardsmen and reservists to stay on duty longer and complete their medical treatment. Chief Warrant Officer Rodger Shuttleworth, who helps administer health care policies for the Army, said the streamlining has solved "90% of the problems" related to extending health coverage.

But witnesses said other snafus remain. Sgt. 1st Class John Allen, a National Guard Special Forces soldier who suffered multiple injuries in Afghanistan, said he knows of numerous injured Guard and reserve soldiers who have stopped trying to seek medical care because it is too difficult.

"They give up somewhere in the process and just go home," Allen said.

© Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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