Lang Sias, McCain's veterans director, said the plans have been distorted by Obama's campaign. The card, he said, "is an additional option, not privatization."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

The other main health access issue concerns what are known as "Priority 8" veterans. Since 2003, many of those veterans haven't been allowed into the VA's health care system because they make too much money and don't have severe enough disabilities.

Obama said one of his first acts as president would be to sign an executive order allowing those veterans into the VA system. McCain believes that opening the doors to all those veterans at once could risk clogging the system. Instead, McCain wants to "aggressively increase capacity" in the system while adjusting the income tests to gradually absorb Priority 8 veterans.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

The department has struggled for years to improve its disability system. In fact, the wide variation in disability payments from state to state is one thing that Obama focused on in 2005 after joining the Senate. Obama is a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

The VA doesn't have as many workers as it needs to process claims, said Phil Carter, the Obama campaign's veterans director. "The people there aren't staying long enough, and they are not getting good leadership," he said. "They need better management."

The claims process, he added, has become "far too adversarial," with veterans feeling they have to fight — and often wait for years — to receive benefits they are due.

Obama said he'd hire additional claims workers, revamp the training system, and bring the VA's paper claims systems into the digital age.

The McCain campaign agrees that there should be a complete review of the VA's disability system, both in the processing of claims and the guidelines for how disabilities are evaluated. "I think you need clear, predictable and understandable standards," said Sias, McCain's veterans director.

The campaign said that the VA's disability system is "tragically broken" and that "too many of our wounded veterans come home to an administrative nightmare rather than a hero's welcome."

___

ON THE WEB

For a Q&A on the issues conducted by Disabled American Veterans: http://www.dav.org/news/documents/mccain — obama — responses.pdf

For John McCain's veterans platform: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/675b00d4-a791-414c-9534-7ca7283d16a2.htm