As the recent outrages inflicted on soldiers receiving outpatient care at Walter Reed Army hospital showed, the nation's system of veterans' medical benefits is overloaded by current demands and poorly positioned to handle the flood of disabled troops yet to come. It is certainly in no position to waste money and time on what seem like thoroughly sketchy claims.

Yet, as Scripps Howard News Service reporter Lisa Hoffman writes, estimates are that "perhaps 775,000 of the 2.6 million veterans on the rolls in 2005 are getting monthly checks for ailments that don't hurt their ability to work, often are treatable, are common in the civilian world, and frequently are the result of the ordinary aging process." And they often show no connection to time in the military.

Take hemorrhoids. Hoffman notes that more than 120,000 vets of earlier eras are receiving lifetime benefits for hemorrhoids at a cost of $14 million a year. Disability benefits have been approved for tiny scars and skin rashes.

Veterans groups told Hoffman that government denial of legitimate claims is a far greater problem than approving illegitimate ones. And they may well be correct. But dubious demands contributed to the current 600,000 and growing backlog of claims. That, one expert told Hoffman, is a disservice to both the truly disabled and the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who must go to the rear of a lengthening line.

The quality of veterans' care tends to drop out of sight when there isn't a war on. Now is the chance to make real improvement in the quality and efficiency of care for those who have borne the battle.