Drew Taylor

Mr. Prichard
CP English 12
22 April 2016

The Truth About Veterans Affairs

Why is it that the most deserving men and women in this country, the veterans, have to
struggle to get the benefits they were guaranteed? Once they get those benefits shouldnt they be
quality benefits? The answer to those questions are very obvious, no the veterans should not have
to wait for their benefits and yes of course the benefits should be of high quality. However in
today's America the VA or Veterans Affairs does not provide veterans with quality in health care
and they also make the people who gave this country its freedom wait for extreme periods of
time for their benefits. The VA or Veterans Affairs is a department of the federal government, and
this department is tasked with providing health care and special benefits to any and all United
States military veterans. The VA was established to provide benifits to the veterans of World War
I and was developed into a program for all veterans after the war. Soon the reality that these
veterans have to deal with on a daily bases will become clear.
The first issue that veterans have to deal with when it comes to the VA is the ridiculous
wait times to get their medical benefits. Often times the root cause of the extremely long wait
times is the inefficient system of applications. According to the VA's inspector general there
were 800,000 records stalled in the agency's system for managing health care enrollment in 2015
(Curt Devine) and 307,000 records that belonged to veterans who had died months or years in
the past (Curt Devine). This system is allowing our nation's veterans, who are willing to die for
this country, to die before they receive the benefits they were guaranteed. It's absolutely

unacceptable that veterans of all people should be subject to these kind of waits, and wait times
such as these are not a fluke accident that happens to one in a million applicants.
My cousin, (Ret.) Specialist Shaun Gallant, actually had his own nightmarish experience
with the VA a few weeks ago. Shaun served with the United States Army as a tank mechanic for
four years, and he actually suffered an injury while serving which eventually forced him to retire.
When Shaun went to the VA to apply for disability benefits he waited for thirty days to he a
response from the VA, and in this response the VA claimed the injury he suffered was sustained
when he was a civilian even though the records clearly showed he was on active duty when his
injury occurred. It's almost like the VA didnt even read his records before they sent their
response, or maybe they just dont have the veteran's best interest in mind. Unfortunately,
Shauns experience isnt uncommon. In the Los Angeles area the VA says the average wait time
for specialty care is 7.5 days and for mental health care wait times are 2.5 days (Drew Griffin)
however CNN found that their evidence to be retrospective. They conducted their own
investigation and found documents confirming that the actual average wait time for new patients
at the VA was 48 days (Drew Griffin).
A constant point that many supporters of the VA try to make is that the VA is not funded
enough by the Federal Government. This point is invalid for the following reasons. In the
president's budget the VA is projected for 182.3 billion dollars in 2017. With this large amount of
money the VA should be able to fund all of its medical centers. And the budget will only continue
to rise from there due to a bill that was passed by congress in May of 2015, this bill would
produce a 2.5 percent rise in Veterans Affairs Department funding (Leo Shane III). With this
rising budget the Veterans Affairs Department has no real excuse for their inability to provide
quality care to the veterans of America's military.

Obviously the department of veterans affairs has been doing a horrible job of providing
Americas servicemen and women their health care. The wait times to get an appointment are
horrendous, the bureaucracy is blatantly obviously, and finally their funding is no excuse for
their follies. It is time for the people to act, veterans of the United States military have sacrificed
for this country enough. Why make them sacrifice more?