<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1667929400634,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1667929400634,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_66968639", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1127138"} }); rn","_id":"00000184-5856-d791-abd4-5e5fdc940000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedFour years after Congress passed landmark Veterans Affairs reform legislation, some of our nation’s heroes struggle to have timely access to healthcare that advocates warn is failing to save those in need. Suicide rates among veterans remain high, while healthcare overhauls promised by the VA MISSION Act have yet to clear the backlog of wait times for care, though the department claims progress is being made.
Then-President Donald Trump signed the Mission Act in 2018 after it overwhelmingly passed Congress in the aftermath of the 2014 VA scandal in which investigations revealed VA officials had fudged the numbers on average wait times for patients, which led to dozens of veterans dying while waiting to be seen. The legislation, which came with a roughly $50 billion price tag, was designed to address in-network and non-VA healthcare issues.
VeteransDay2022.jpgVETERAN SUICIDES TESTIFY TO A HEALTHCARE TRAVESTY
The leader of America’s Warrior Partnership, Jim Lorraine, told the Washington Examiner that the VA has work to do to ensure every veteran has access to healthcare, adding the department has just “scratched the surface” of the implementation of the 2018 Mission Act, which expanded and extended veterans’ care options to non-VA healthcare providers.
Donald TrumpThe VA maintains that the wait time and access to care have improved in recent years, while advocates maintain there’s still room for improvements, as evidenced by the signing of the legislation known as the PACT Act of 2022, which further expanded veterans healthcare assistance for service members exposed to toxic burn pits.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said the VA processed more than 1.7 million claims during fiscal 2022, breaking the previous record by 12%, and has gotten the backlog of claims “down to its lowest number in years,” during an event on Nov. 7 at the National Press Club. He also said they’re on pace to meet their goal of housing 38,000 homeless veterans into permanent residency during the 2022 calendar year.
Denis McDonoughAdditionally, starting on Election Day this year, veterans making their first visit to the VA will undergo a new toxic exposure screening, an effort that was mandated under the PACT Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in early August to expand healthcare benefits for millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins mainly during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
While both are positive signs, there were 519 service members who died by suicide during the 2021 calendar year, 328 of them active duty members, which was slightly lower than the 582 such deaths the previous year, according to information released by the Department of Defense last month.
The DOD’s tallied suicide rate was 24 per 100,000 troops for 2021 for active duty members, 21 per 100,000 troops for reserve forces, and 26 per 100,000 troops for National Guard members, while the rate for active duty members was nearly 29 per 100,000 troops the year before, marking a 15% decrease. Nonprofit organization America’s Warrior Partnership released a report this fall concluding that the number of suicides among veterans from 2014-2018 was higher than the VA’s tallies, though the VA stood by its numbers at the time.
Frank Larkin, a former Navy SEAL who later served as the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms, lost his son, also a SEAL, to suicide and has rededicated his life to prevent others from the same tragedy. Now, Larkin is promoting the Warrior Call, which is an initiative encouraging veterans and active-duty service members to reach out to one another in an attempt to identify those who have isolated themselves and are in need.
Every living former Veterans Affairs secretary has signed a letter backing the nationwide Warrior Call, as have 27 Medal of Honor recipients and another roughly 50 veteran service organizations who wrote a letter to members of Congress.
“Every time you talk to these veterans, it’s a common complaint, a call out that, ‘hey, nobody’s listening to me.’ They’re quick to judge, it’s one size fits all and not one size fits one,” Larkin told the Washington Examiner. “We really need the systems that we’re dealing with to take the time to listen to these men and women to understand what their challenges are, and to be able to guide them into the appropriate care.”
The apparent lack of empathy “creates a level of lack of competence and distrust,” he said, which he described as an “ongoing problem” that the Department of Defense and VA are aware of and working to fix.
“I do think that they recognize that they’re not connecting to a lot of veterans. A lot of it has been because of their own bureaucratic processes are slow movement and their delay in follow-up care,” Larkin added. “I think they need a great effort to try to improve that. But each one of these VA centers is like a 7/11 franchise. They’re all independent [and] different and sometimes they listen to a higher headquarters, sometimes they don’t. You’ve got some that are outstanding platforms of care and connectivity to the veterans within their local community. And then you got others that just for whatever reason, don’t get it and are still disenfranchising veterans.”
The average wait time for an appointment has decreased from 16 days during fiscal 2020 to 15 days during fiscal 2021, according to the VA’s website, though the marginal improvement has still proven to be too long a wait for some who are in need of immediate medical care. Some VA facilities have monthslong wait times for new or existing patients, and although in those cases veterans have the option of seeking alternative care options, not everyone can afford to pay for it.
Lorraine, from America’s Warrior Project, said more is needed to realize the reforms, especially for veterans who don’t live near a VA medical center.
“I don’t think we’ve fully maximized it especially … if you look at Augusta, Georgia, where our America’s Warrior Partnership headquarters is, we have a large VA facility footprint, the next closest VA Medical Center is either Columbia, South Carolina or Atlanta, Georgia,” Lorraine explained. “If you sit in between those two facilities, you have anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half drive to get to your healthcare. I think that’s too far. That’s not even the rural [areas] — we’re talking about the Midwest or North Dakota.”
Jon StewartVeterans groups scored a major legislative victory this summer when Congress passed the PACT Act, which specifically sought to address the needs of the roughly 3.5 million soldiers who were exposed to toxic burn pits during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — which has been commonly referred to as this generation’s Agent Orange.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The legislation called for the creation of a framework for the establishment of similar services moving forward, strengthening federal research on toxic exposure and improving the VA’s resources, among other changes. It faced eleventh-hour hurdles, even after years of advocacy, though comedian-turned-advocate Jon Stewart and others refused to let the legislation die.
Biden, when he signed the PACT Act, affirmed that “We have many obligations and only one truly sacred obligation: To equip those we send into harm’s way and to care for them and their families when they come home.”
