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Mahadeo Singh

Professor Lucia

English 21002

07 March 2017

The VA and its System

The United Sates Department of Veteran Affairs or otherwise known as VA has been

criticized for many years for their treatment of veterans, while numerous veterans praise the VA

for their flexibility with the variety of programs they offer. It is noteworthy to comprehend that

even though President Hoover signed the executive order establishing the VA on July 21, 1930,

the grass roots of veteran rights and protection goes back all the way to the American Colonies

by providing pensions for disabled veterans. It wasnt until the Civil War when the VA evolved to

become the first federal Veterans facility established for Civil War soldiers and sailors of the

Union Army. As the VA began to expand to include 150 hospitals, 800 community-based

outpatient clinics, 126 nursing home care units and 35 domiciliaries (Patersen), there has been

some injustice and justice that have been both criticized and praised by many regarding their

treatment of veterans and their establishment and success of their programs. Every day living in

the big apple, New York City, it cannot go unnoticed many homeless people present on almost

every block, subways, and the entirety of the metropolitan city. When I used to live in Florida,

there were many veterans that used to live around me. They praised the system and advantages of

the VA programs and pensions. However, I see signs of homeless people on the streets and on the

train, that says they are veterans and need money for food. This has urged me to delve further

into the VA System and is their treatment justified to benefit all veterans.
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Many people such as Mr. Alford, the co-founder, President/CEO, of the National Black

Chamber of Commerce, agree with the idea that society and governmental treatment of American

veterans is shameful. According to his article, Our Shameful Treatment of American Veterans,

Alford states, No matter how many news articles detailing the bevy of scandals; Congressional

hearings and Inspector General Reports, it just keeps getting worse. While Congress rewarded

our military with the G.I. Bill of Rights, a program that educated veterans in great quantities as

well as offered 100% mortgages and medical help, Alford suggests that the program has gone

awry. He puts an emphasis on the flawed bureaucrats who take advantage of their unions, which

results in not giving veterans necessities they need. Alford claims that these unions are powerful

and inevitable to fire them. The VA hospitals continue to lose veterans at a detrimental rate

because of waiting and waiting for assistance that never shows up at all. Even though it is

clearly shown that Alford does not agree with the VA system and the treatment of Veterans, he

offers a solution to put them up for sale and privatize them to hospital corporations to make it

profitable for everyone. Alford does give me a sense of understanding of the unions getting in the

way from helping veterans. However, some questions arise from his article. From what I

understand he used these Congressional hearings and Inspector General Reports to come to his

conclusions. For me to understand his conclusions, I would need to look at the reports.

More recently, an article Billions spent to fix VA didnt solve problems, made some

issues worse, by Curt Devine and Drew Griffin, who work for CNN Investigations, thoroughly

analyzed various reports issued by congress including the Commission on Care report regarding

the issues and problems that derive from the operations of the VA. Congress has given a

commission a task to attempt to fix the Veterans Health Administration, a department under the

VA. The Commission on Care concluded in their detailed report that there are many profound
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deficiencies and require urgent reform. Prior to forming the Commission on Care, a CNN

investigation revealed that the VA staffers manipulated data to hide a system-wide health care

delays. Devine and Griffin concluded that the report said the system was flawed, insufficient

staffing, inadequate facilities, antiquated IT system and inefficient use of employees. There is no

proper functioning leadership. Presently, a veteran must wait more than 30 days or live more

than 40 miles from a VA facility to get private care through the VA. Although the 300-page report

by Commission on Care will take a time to digest with the government, the document shows that

there needs to be a dramatic change. The report does clarify one-way veterans are treated. They

must live more than 30 miles to receive money from the VA to pay expenses. I understand that

places such as a city will have access to VA hospitals. This new-found information has led me to

implore on the idea that perhaps the problems in the VA arise from leadership and rules that

might contradict to the purpose of the VA.

Karen McVeigh, a writer for The Guardian wrote a report titled, US military veterans

face inadequate care after returning from war, that establishes a unique point of view from a

different angle that showcases the treatment of veterans. About half of the 2.2 million troops

deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan report facing difficulties upon returning home, mostly due to

the failure of care from the US department of Defense and Veteran Affairs. The tools used to treat

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has no scientific method base and needed to be evaluated

more. There are several agencies that are actively trying to address the support if needs of current

and former service members and their families. However, due to the complexity of the large

population and its requirements, it is impossible to address all. According to the IOM report, an

independent nonprofit organization for the National Academy of Science concluded that the

DOD and the VA need to address the adequacy of properly treating veterans. Roughly 22
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veterans take their own lives every day. The fact that 22 veterans take their lives a day because

they had no help, due to the long waiting lists, is horrifying. Even though the report suggests all

these solutions such as linking and integrating databases between the DOD and VA to solve

problems, how does it fix the problems within the VA and the rules that prevent veterans from

getting help? It is my understanding that these problems occur because of all the rules that

leaders make, making it difficult for veterans.

To further explore this topic, Harlan Krumholz, a contributor to Forbes and former VA

employee, wrote an article 3 Things To Know Before You Judge VA Health System, that

showcases the inevitable problems the VA and its systems face day to day. In the article,

Krumholz basically points out the conflicts that arise in the VA and reiterates that these problems

stemmed due to various issues that the VA could not help. He goes on to say that in 2000, the VA

and its healthcare system was better at giving patients the best treatment than any other non-VA

private sector. Over the years, problems began to arise due to the patients. The wait times

increased dramatically due to the lack of doctor appointments. Some patients even have their

own preference, which results in a longer wait time. Prior to reading this article, the issue of wait

times was criticized to the point no one started to question how the problem came to be. With

issues regarding wait times and lists came to be because the VA are not given the source of

income needed to make more doctor appointments. I also notice that some of these problems that

the VA are being criticized with are due to lack of funding. This led me to further examine the

funding the VA receives from the government.

With regards to funding, Reynaldo Leal published a piece directly for the VA. In his

factual piece, How $1.4 billion in budget cuts will impact Veterans, Leal breaks down the

budget cuts and what it means to the various programs and departments, into a simplistic manner.
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In 2016, the House Appropriations Subcommittee cut more than $1.4 billion from the presidents

requested budget. As the VA continues to improve their wait times by 97 percent, the cut in

federal funding will result in VA medical care to be cut by $690 million, meaning 70,000 fewer

veterans will receive care if needed. There will also be less staff and delays in medical research.

That means there will be fewer doctor appointments. It will also cut the projects the VA is

currently working on, which means no more outpatient clinics, in states that desperately need it.

After reading this article, I fully understand the perspective of veterans who do not get the help

they need, when they need it. Although funding has an impact on the VA, I want to know how

these problems can be fixed. I understand that the VAs budget is cut, but can there be a way to

compensate the loss for our veterans.

Regardless of what we may think about the VA, Veterans are the primary and sole

purpose of what makes our country to what it is today. After reading the various articles and

learning how the problems came to be and the outcomes, some questions still linger to come to a

cohesive solution to a very ambiguous problem. I know that the VA system needs to be fixed, but

getting fixed is the problem for the VA. As I come to an end to my exploratory paper, I

understand the treatment our veterans are going through, but it also needs to be understood that

these problems arise due to external factors. After reading all the sources, the VA System and the

treatment of veterans became something bigger than I originally thought. As a result, more

research needs to be done to understand the VA system as one, to understand how our veterans

are being treated.