Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration is shortchanging U.S. military veterans in health care, providing insufficient psychological support and other aid to troops returning from Iraq, a former head of U.S. Central Command said.

President George W. Bush "has consistently refused to provide enough for veteran's health care," retired Marine General Joseph Hoar said today in the Democratic response to the president's weekly radio address.

'Thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will require mental health care services, yet the Bush administration has not taken action to deal with this emerging problem," said Hoar, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and Southwest Asia under President George H.W. Bush, the current U.S. president's father, and Marines Corps Chief of Staff of Operations during the 1991 Gulf War.

Demand for veterans' health care has surged in recent years. During the seven years after the Veterans Healthcare Reform Act was enacted in 1996, enrollment grew 141 percent to 7 million, while funding increased 60 percent, a 2004 report by the Harvard/Cambridge Hospital Study Group said.

Congress in July approved an extra $1.5 billion for veterans' health after the Department of Veterans Affairs revealed a funding shortfall.

About 103,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are currently receiving care from the system, far more than the 23,500 the VA predicted. The surge contributed to about one- quarter of the funding shortfall, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson told Congress in June.

To contact the reporter on this story:
James Tyson in Washington at  jtyson@bloomberg.net

Commentary:
Why do republicans hate the military?