Army Examines Possibility of Private Medical Contractor

By Walter Pincus Monday, September 3, 2007; A13

Whom do you turn to when the enormous number of military contract employees in Iraq creates problems for the U.S. Army as it tries to fight there?

Another contractor, of course.

Military medical treatment facilities in Iraq have been overwhelmed trying to handle routine health-care problems for some of the more than 129,000 people working for U.S. and coalition force contractors. As a result, the U.S. Army is trying to determine whether a private medical contractor is willing to take over the job.

Last week, Joint Contracting Command-Iraq provided details on its July 27 Request for Information (RFI W91GDW-07-R-4024), titled "Civilian Contractor Hospital Services throughout Iraq." It asks whether private health-care providers might be interested in establishing "medical treatment facilities at Forward Operating Bases throughout Iraq that would provide medical treatment to contractors working with the coalition forces."

The purpose of any contract was bluntly stated: "This concept would free up military hospitals to concentrate on military casualties."

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Amazing--$800 billion pounded into this sand-hole in the desert and the American military is 'overwhelmed' by providing country-wide medical care for a population equal to Naperville, Illinois (120,000).

"This concept would free up military hospitals to concentrate on military casualties."

Presumably that means the casualties that are not associated with the 80% of the 'outsourced' war, currently being mishandled by Halliburton, Blackwater and the thousands of mom-and-pop suppliers that have sprung up to profit from this war.

One wonders how the hell we ever got off the Normandy Beaches. But then, that war wasn't fought by the Reserves.

* For more in-depth articles by Jim on Iraq War, check out Opinion-Columns.com