Impact of Funding Cuts on Veterans

Failed internal issues at VA facilities have resulted in harm and even in the deaths of veterans. According to a report by the Office Of Inspector General (2014), “17 deaths had occurred while waiting for VHA treatment in the Phoenix VA system, and on June 5, 2014 the Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Sloan Gibson, reported that the VA had identified 18 additional deaths” (as cited in Wikipedia, n.d.).

State and federal legislators both need to make it a priority to be involved in the welfare of veterans. The issues will never get better unless the individuals in charge of the laws, regulations, funding and departments step up to the challenges. That alone will not even be enough. These issues need to be addressed on a state level as well. Housing projects and professional training need to be made more widely available. Understanding the importance of both changes made at a state and federal level for the living conditions and health status of American veterans is the first step. The next step is that it must be acted on and improved. The United States of America owes that much to its

The New York Times article, “Wait Lists Grow as Many More Veterans Seek Care and Funding Falls Far Short” says the Department of Veterans Affairs agency has a new crisis they’re facing. The wait list of Veteran’s is more than 50% higher than it was last year, departments say. They are also facing nearly a $3 billion budget short, which could very well affect the care of our veterans.

They claimed Iraq and Afghanistan veteran polls have been taken, it shows that whatever improvements and actions being were taken were not enough. Fifty-nine percent of the people rated the job the government was doing to help was good, while fifty-six percent rated it as them doing poorly. In an article by CNN news nineteen veterans have died because of delays for medical treatments from the Veterans Affair. Those nineteen veterans were only a small proportion of that group. A number of eight-two veterans who have died because of delays for medical treatments like colonoscopies or endoscopies. Some people like my father (Jason McLain), who is a retired veteran, believes that some doctors have their own personal bias toward veterans. Jason McLain stated, “When I go to the VA they do not help me as soon as I need their help. Although when I go to any other civilian doctor’s office they help me right away with any of their help”. A website by the name of Free Grants Community stated that success and failures of the Departments of Veterans Affair are frequently the subjects of political promises and debates. There are many places that can help with benefits or homelessness, simply anything veteran(active/retired) need. A six-year veteran stated that there are places to help but emphasizes that you have to pursue yourself. After you are done with the military to go back to school and to keep getting educated. Besides the fact the regular ordinary citizens complain that veterans are not getting enough help, there have been complaints against all employers for discrimination has blames the economic crisis and ballooning deficits for the inability to provide for more

The issue of veterans’ health care has dominated public discourse for many years, with various statistics

This is like a bomb waiting to go off: Family of veterans have to live with fear, hoping that their love one would recuperate, be happy, or simply a civilian again. The Veterans Affairs Department (VA) should put a better effort to better assist veterans, and their family with a better plan to reduce this preventable death. Many veterans find it difficult to admit, control, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), let alone reaching for help; when they do so, they are considered just another number at the VA. At any moment, a veteran?s sacrifice for this country should end

Over the past 15 years, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) has seen a dramatic increase in the average degree of disability, growth in the number of compensation recipients, a rise in the number of medical issues claimed and an increased level of complexity of claimed issues. To illustrate this point, prior to the September 2011 terrorist attacks, 333,700 Veterans received compensation at the 70-100 percent level; however, these figures rose to over 1.1 million by the end of 2013. Additionally, since 2009, VA’s disability compensation workload rose 132 percent. This is in large part due to an unprecedented demand resulting from over a decade of war, military downsizing, economic issues, increased outreach, the addition of presumptive conditions and an aging Veteran population.

Current funding for veteran healthcare care is low and insufficient because of the large number of veterans, who are being discharged from the military as the country transitions to a democratic President. According to Dr. Rachel Nardin in her article about veteran healthcare, “Soldiers get excellent acute care when injured on active duty, but as revelations of poor conditions for soldiers receiving ongoing outpatient care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center highlighted, service members often have trouble getting the care they need once active duty ends” (Nardin 1)

Veterans are being cheated out of their time, money, and resources while waiting for benefits from claims that are waiting to be processed. In the article, "Veterans Face Long Delays for Disability Claims" it states, "while veterans waited longer than ever in recent time for their wartime disability compensation, the Department of Veterans Affairs gave its workers millions

The VA health care program is a disaster. Some candidates want to get rid of it, but our veterans need the VA to be there for them and their families. That’s why the Trump plan will:

Almost 60% of all veterans say that the VA is doing “only fair” or a “poor” job at taking care of the problems faced by serviceman (Chandrasekaren). Current soldiers, as well as veterans, are facing problems like not be able to find a job because of a disability or not receiving compensation for an injury that occurred while in the service. Many wait months upon months just to be seen by a doctor. The men and women protecting this country deserve the best help available, and they are receiving very little or no help at all. Health care, benefits, and simply having money to survive are not problems that these individuals need to be facing after putting their lives on the line for us. Veterans need help, and our

The fiscal year 2010 increased funding for the Department of VA affairs by $25 billion over the next five years. The budget includes an 11% increase in resources funding of 55.9 million dollars. The budget increases health care funding for veterans enabling the VA to provide time, high quality care to 5.5 million veterans. The budget provides for a collaborative pilot program with non-profit organizations to help veterans avoid homelessness.

Another issue regarding the VA system is the limitations that is places on the abilities of the private sector to provide aid to Veterans. The private sector of the United States has no access to the files of former members of our military; as a result of this, a Veteran would potentially have to drive hours to get to a VA facility for something as simple as a flu shot. Veterans should be able to enjoy the benefits that they are entitled to without having to go a great distance. This very solution presents yet another conflict: the majority of returning military members are uninformed regarding what it is that they are medically entitled to. There is often far too little communication between VA facilities and Veterans concerning how they

Unfortunately, the healthcare system provided is full of corruption. In different VA hospital and care facilities across America there have been discoveries of unjust treatment and poor judgement calls that have affected many veterans. “ In 2013, a whistleblower revealed chronic understaffing and life threatening medical mistakes at a Mississippi VA hospital”(Leighton 4). This is just one of many different examples of the veterans affairs hospitals being unreliable. “I 2007 the Army general in charge of Walter Reed Medical Center was fired after the Washington Post revealed poor living conditions and excessive red tape at the facility”(Leighton 4). It is appalling that it has become so corrupt among the VA health care system that whistleblower have to be placed and hospital have to be shut down because of the lack of regard for care and the selfishness of the people who write the checks. In one of the above quotes it said that understaffing and possibly fatal medical mistake had occurred in the VA hospital. Why is it that the hospital was understaffed? The reason is, because the greedy people in charge are more concerned with how much they make a year rather than making sure that veterans get the care they deserve. The problem is not that the VA does not get enough money, “They pointed to the cost of veterans’ care, which they revised up from $717 billion to $943 billion- nearly $1 trillion in health and disability costs alone”(Vlahos 41), the problem is that they do not use it to help the veterans. About fifty-three veterans die each day waiting for their VA benefits to kick in while the VA is dealing with a huge backlog of claims that has amounted to about 900,000 reported (Walsh 1). The VA is putting off care for veterans to the point that many of them die each day, which causes the VA to have to pay claims to families of the

The largest problem veterans’ deal with today is VA health care, The Department of Veterans Affairs. Getting into the facility to just see them you have to jump through a multitude of hoops. The main problem with going to see the VA though always boils down to funding. Funding is the sole factor for every problem that veterans face when it comes to dealing with the VA health care. Even with the proper funding the VA can never hope to help all the veterans that truly need their service which is why it must be cut completely and turned over to state health care.