Veterans Affairs Hospitals

Duty Honor Country

Active member
CNN broke some news about a VA hospital who had over 1,600 veterans waiting months for appointments while reporting that appointments were being made within 14 days. At least 40 veterans have died due to these month long delays in appointments. This is sick

READ CNN's VA Hospital Article

I know we have some veterans with VA benefits on the forums.

Do you all have any VA experiences / opinions to share?

-DHC
 
This is absolutely despicable.

As angry as I am that people would do this I am certainly not surprised by it. What a tragedy for those who were lost.
 
I have been trying for/applying for VA services for my knees which were injured while serving, since 1992. Granted, I never saw combat, but if my knees are damaged, which they were, the government is responsible.

I found out recently that when I have PTSD problems/flashbacks/daymares, and call the vetline, sometimes pleading for help, they only do so as a humanitarian gesture, because they say I never served. Humanitarian???? Whatever. "Never served"? What the hell? Just like when I came here I offered to Redleg and TI a copy of my DD214 that they can easily verify through the DoD as legit...I took the oath, I passed through MEPS, I pulled a paycheck, my knees couldn't handle it, that's all. Evn in the VA Veteran's Handbook I qualify, but they still say no. They say I have to serve a minimum of 2 years first, even if injured while Unca Sammy's property. That applies to NG IIRC. I was Regular Army.

Ask any combat vet what they prefer- going down in training or going down during a mission.
The VA is not on my Christmas card list.
 
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In VA hospitals, the priorities for treatment are (1) Service connected conditions, (2) Non-service connected conditions. There are large numbers of veterans in category one because we have been in active combat for 14 years.
Veterans of earlier conflicts are are also a very large group and these persons are of advanced age with conditions that usually place them in category two, and many have no alternative medical coverage. The reason for not obtaining other medical insurance and coverage may be economics, or it may be choice. The veteran elects not to pay for non-VA medical coverage for non-service connected issues.
Also, it depends where you live. In large urban areas there are more users of the system.
So, it's a question of the demand exceeding supply, but this is a temporary condition. After a prolonged period of peace,( if we ever have one), supply exceeds demand.
Psychiatric treatment requires long-term care and places more demands on the system than many medical conditions.
Virtually all of the non-servce connected conditions could be treated at non-VA facilities, but somebody has to pay, usually the veteran, and many don't want to do that.
So, they get in line and wait for an appointment.
 
I’ve received VA care in 4 states (FL, CA, AR, and TX). I have never experienced the waiting periods this report claims and, overall, I have little to complain about VA treatment.

Of course I am retired from the Army and have chose to keep Tricare Prime, even though I pay for it. I also now receive Medicare so I think I’m in pretty good shape, even though I’m 40% disabled due to injuries on AD.

I echo Remington’s comments. If you chose to not stay in the service then your medical care was your responsibility - not the Governments. If you are now expecting the Government to provide full, and 1st class, medical care then you are wrong.

Also I’ve seen reports that the stats from this article are at least partially incorrect and that there is no evidence to back up the claims made.

Many people have fallen for the media and political line that we all are victims and not responsible for ourselves or anything else, therefore it falls to someone else to fix our problems. Nor do the majority of the “Sheeple” understand anything about the military or the VA system. Understand I’m not saying the VA does not have problems, but I think most of those problems are due to the top heavy administration and not the caregivers.

My own sister (a retired CA Paralegal) insisted her boyfriend was due full VA care, even though he was in only a few months (never leaving Ft. Ord) and got out on a hardship discharge. She made him believe it too. She, my mother, and his family still believe the VA wronged them.

A lot of people in the VA clinics and hospitals probably shouldn’t be there.
 
I don't want full medical. I don't want a monthly check. I just want my knees fixed.

I assume (with all the trepidation attached to that word) you were injured while on AD. If so you are due treatment for your knees (again assuming your injury was in the line of duty).

But someone drafted and serving his two years is not due full VA care, unless he has service connected disabilities, and there are many in the VA waiting rooms who fall into that category.

I say service connected, I had a young soldier back in the 70’s who injured himself waterskiing (he was also drinking) and felt he deserved care from the Government for the rest of his life!

Serving a one, or even more, enlistments 40-50 years ago means the serviceman has done something else in the meantime. What has he done for medical care for that period?

The first Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan have left many needing care and they must have priority. Us “old timers” have to realize this, we may have to wait.
 
All I want are my knees, and the resulting damage from those, fixed. Was I active? I was living in the barracks at Ft. Knox. I can go into more detail, but not in public.
 
Dusty,
As I pointed out there is a difference between being “injured while on AD(the drunk kid waterskiing)” and being “injured in the line of duty”.

Again if your knees were a result of line of duty injuries then you a certainly due med care from the VA, but as I also pointed out there may be others with more serious (and recent?) injuries who will take priority.

I suffered non combat injuries in VN which due to circumstances were not documented and I can't receive disability for them now; my nephew had a melanoma while on duty, after it had been removed and he was cleared of cancer (and against my advice) he took a settlement and got out. In effect he released the Government of responsibility (for a few $) if the cancer came back . Several years later it did come back and he died of it. Until almost the end (and much, much too late) he refused to seek VA help, my sister (his mother) and my mother still blame the Army and the VA and I don't see why.

There is no doubt the VA has many problems, as an example when I moved from AR to TX I found that the VA computers (between these states) couldn’t communicate (or so I was told and I am incredulous about that) so I had to start the enrollment process almost from scratch.

But in all the facilities I’ve visited the staff goes out of their way to be respectful and courteous - and that is difficult with some patients and their families - especially those from this last 50 year era of entitlement. I know the VA has problems getting and keeping Dr.’s, I don’t know about the other staff.

After my retirement (1991) I went back to school with the idea of becoming a RN and going back in with a commission (Dr.’s and Nurses, that I know of, have much higher age limits than other service members), so I know something of Med. Procedures and I’ve not had any great problems in this area.

I still believe the VA’s greatest problem is the top heavy (and maybe political) administrative staff. The are very well paid and, like most Government Jobs, are not held accountable for their failures.

Some of the media reporting deals with people having signs of trauma and VA clinics are not set up or staffed to do triage. Every time I call the VA there is a recording telling you to go to a hospital is you are experiencing an emergency and I’ve never heard of a VA hospital turning anyone with an emergency away - I have heard of private hospitals that do.

My pet peeve is that if you served a short time in the military 10, 20, 30, or more years ago doesn’t automatically entitle you to priority VA care.

After an enlistment you enter into civilian life, if you are a responsible individual you provide for medical care for yourself and your family. If you don’t - that is your choice and it is not the Government’s duty to provide for you.

Before being drafted I worked (while in HS and for a while after) for a company that printed several small town newspapers. Do they, after nearly 50 years, owe me the benefits I had while I worked there?

Of course not, yet many ex-service men/women think the VA owes them immediate care, and they are wrong.
 
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Everything you've said thus far is absolutely correct and is actually a sticking point between my father and I. He gets 100% Disability from the VA that he's been collecting for 5 years now. He's having the government pay for his poor decisions in life. He served almost 10 years in the Marine Corps but got out in 1975. He boozed, fought, and later, drugged his way through the service which didn't stop after he got out until he got clean in the late 80s. After he got sober he still ate himself to his current state and he's hovered around 300lbs for not less than 15 years. He hasn't worked since 2000 when he's been perfectly capable of working the whole time...

His body is in bad condition because he didn't take care of it at all throughout his life. Now we have to pay for it through his disability. He bitches about being broke but has a truck, SUV, motorcycle, and a mortgage. He makes as much as my step mother does through his "entitlements" and she's working full time in a pretty skilled labor job. (aircraft inspection) She's also 65...He's flat out lazy in my mind. The VA has essentially kept him alive through enormous effort on their part. (stint operation and then later a quadruple bypass surgery) after these surgeries, he didn't change a thing...If his disability was at all connected to his service, then I wouldn't mind in the least...but it isn't. He made poor decisions and chose to not set himself for later in life. He chose not to carry medical insurance when he could afford it. He refused to save ANY money for the future and instead blew it all on the now now now... How many vets from the current wars that really need it haven't gotten it because he won't give up his spot in line for his b******t claims? I think that's the crux of the entire thing. People have found a way to work the system since there is very little oversight.

I chaptered a soldier in the last year who brilliantly worked the system to his benefit...He got out after barely a year. He never went to the field, never took a PT test, never really did anything. He kept going to sick call over "shin splints". Actually, he got a profile less than a week after being in the unit...The doctors could never find anything wrong with him. We were trying to get him out in less than a year so he could simply get a failure to adapt discharge. He appealed it just right to get it over a year so then he had to be med boarded...This kid...19...got out after having contributed nothing to operational readiness....with a $10,000.00 severance package and a 30% disability rating from the Army....W...T...F! It was a lie...all of it. How many of those are out there?
 
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