Department of Veterans Affairs and bill H.R. 1259 VA Accountability First Act of 2017

So all our battles have been discussed and we are well aware there are more going on around the world today. Our military, thanks to the past administration, has been depleted so we keep sending the same people back out there giving little thought to their wellbeing. If our government was considering our military personnel they wouldn’t be putting them back in harm’s way again and again. Some you can see the physical scars but others you will never see the scars they carry home with them because they are hidden within the body and mind.

For years people thought our veterans have it made. I mean after all they get healthcare at the Veterans Administration so what else do they need. Well, let’s talk about the V.A. It was set up long before all the bureaucrat’s got involved and added red tape and confusion to the mix. There are records showing the first settlers, the Pilgrims, agreed to take care of the soldiers who were disabled during their fights with the Pequot Indians. It was their way of thanking them and seeing to it their families had what they needed.

Throughout American history there has always been some form of support for our disabled veterans in the form of pensions for the service to their country. As time went on it started to include medical care and even expanded the benefits to the family, widows and dependents of the veteran. As time went on Congress realized our veterans needed more help. They needed better care on their return home from war so they could continue to live productive lives so they introduced a new system after World War I which included disability compensation, insurance for service personnel and veterans, and vocational rehabilitation for disabled veterans. With this came the development of more bureaucracy with the introduction of the Veterans Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Still this was not enough to handle what our returning soldiers were going through battle after battle which mean things needed to improve in order to give our veterans the care they not only needed but deserved.

Fast forward to today, to my own experiences with the V.A. and how they treat our veterans. My ex-husband was retired from the Navy when we met. He was having some problems with his stomach and of course being used to the military way of doing things he decided he would use the local VA to get checked. Well it’s not like your doctor’s office where you call the office in the morning and they see you by the afternoon. Nope, our veterans get to hurry up and wait yet again. It takes months to get an appointment and once you get there you sit in a room with everyone else who has the same date and time you have. So expect to spend the day.

When you finally get in to see the doctor who happens to be there that day you go through your list of ailments and they order the tests they want done but they don’t set up the appointments for you even though they are going to be done right in the same facility. Nope you go down the hall to schedule your tests. Now the first time I went with him and we had to go to another office to set up an appointment. We entered a room filled with about six desks all occupied with people who seemed too busy to even pay attention to us. The girl at the first desk asked us what we needed and he told her. 

She directed us to the woman to her left. As we were standing in front of this woman’s desk she was scurrying around while sitting in her office chair from the computer on her desk to the printer across the room, getting him the papers he needed to take with him the day of his tests. I, being the gullible person I am, thought how amazing this women was to be disabled and working so hard. As we left the office I turned to say something to him about it and couldn’t get over the look of surprise on his face as he cracked up laughing but before he could say anything to me this same woman came walking out of the office to go on her coffee break. She wasn’t disabled at all, just doing things the lazy way.  

Test after test was taken and they kept telling him there was nothing wrong. They had no idea why he was going through any of the symptoms he had and he did what the doctors told him to do. Each new appointment was three to four months out at least and by the time he went back he had a different doctor to see because the same doctors aren’t always at the V.A. they rotate in and out. I remember one doctor telling him there was nothing wrong with him and he needed to just get over it. This infuriated me because as I sat in the waiting room I listened to the other veterans who were sitting there who also served in the Gulf War. Every one of them had the same or similar complaints and every one of them was getting the same answer, nothing is wrong, go back to work. This upset me to no end so I did my own research and it didn’t take long for me to discover not only was the V.A. aware of these unexplained illnesses the veterans were suffering from but they named it, Gulf War Syndrome.

I was stunned no one talked to us about this since he had many of the symptoms which included fatigue, headaches, joint pain, indigestion, insomnia, dizziness, respiratory disorders and memory problems. Yet when we brought it up to a doctor on his next visit we were told there was no proof it actually existed.  No proof but there was an office full of veterans all suffering from the same or similar ailments. No one was listening to these veterans.

The idea of the V.A. is for doctors who are familiar with service member’s illnesses to be there to care for them. If that is the case then why are these doctors on constant rotation from other facilities and not employed by the administration so they get to know their patients? I know these doctors can only do what they can while they are putting their time in at the V.A. but it’s not fair to our veterans not to have the proper care.

I know so many people feel our veterans would be better off if there was no veteran administration hospitals but that’s not true because the average family doctor is not aware of what these veterans have been through. They have no idea of what they have come in contact with during their tour of duty that could be causing them the physical problems they are facing let alone the emotional stress they are under. Doctors who serve at the V.A. are made aware of what our service members have had to endure during their time served. Their military health records are on file for them to review but like anything else they are not always as caring as they should be and some end up clumping all together because they have heard it all before, day after day.

The problems with our VA started a long time ago and have only grown worse over the years. Now we have a President in office all of two months and people are expecting miracles demanding to know why he hasn’t done something about a system that has been busted and ignored for a long time. If you were to ask a veteran they will tell you nothing the government ever does for the betterment of the people will ever be done with the snap of a finger because the bureaucrats won’t allow it. They need to argue it to death before they can decide to back it or not because they have to see what is in it for them.

I believe fixing the Department of Veteran Affairs is one of the, if not the, biggest problems President Trump faces. Once again in my opinion, the problem is going to be weeding out who is actually there for the betterment of the veterans and who is there to line their own pockets. Over the years it has been reported that the VA health system is plagued with waste, fraud, and mismanagement.

President Trump’s first step in his plan to fix the VA is to nominate Dr. David Shulkin who was the undersecretary in the Obama administration which is a good idea because he is already aware of the problems which need to be fixed. Dr. Shulkin was sworn in as the Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary on February 14, 2017 and he has his work cut out for him.

The House just pasted H.R. 1259 which is the VA Accountability First Act of 2017 geared to institute necessary reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs. It provides the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs the authority to remove, demote or suspend any VA employee for performance or misconduct. Which I cannot understand needing a bill for since he is the Secretary and is held responsible for Veterans Affairs. How could he do his job if the government ties his hands? As I read this bill I sat in shock that it even had to be passed because I cannot understand how the points covered in this bill were not already in the authority of the Secretary to begin with. How can you keep a department working correctly if you have no control over what is going on? Who was the one responsible for all of this in the past? Who watched over the fraud, waste, and corruption of the V.A.? Logical question since someone needs to be held responsible. So the person serving as the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs was more or less a figure head with the supervisors of different departments being in charge of the daily routine. That’s the way I see it since a bill had to be passed in order to give the Secretary the authority to do his job the right way. If that’s the case then the animals were in charge of the zoo and it’s no wonder things were turned upside down leaving the veterans to suffer.

Remember not every veteran is 100% disabled. They go to the VA so they can be treated for illnesses they received while on active duty but many still hold a job so to go and spend the day at the VA they are either taking a sick day from their job, a vacation day, or a day without pay. Trust me the few dollars the VA gives you back for your travel doesn’t help pay the bills if you lost a day’s pay to go sit in the VA, see a doctor, have tests ordered and start the process over because once the tests are back and they call you to make yet another appointment three to four months out. In the private sector we would never tolerate being treated that way. No one should ever be pushed aside and made to wait when their health is on the line and our veterans didn’t tell us to wait when they were called to serve. They did what they needed to do to protect us and we need to do whatever we need to do and see to it they are well taken care of. In the White House, right now, we have the right man for the job.

Here is a link to the page that shows the bill passes the house: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2017/h168  on it you will be able to read the bill as well as see who voted for and against it. Remember those who voted against helping fix this mess when election time rolls around again.

We all need to get behind our President. He is working hard to do the job he promised he would do. He has already taken a step in the right direction to help our veterans. I am sure there is a lot more work to done here but I know he will not give up and I will stand behind him and support him every step of the way.

Thank you President Trump for working so hard to improve the lives of so many.

May God Bless America and May God Bless our veterans, past, present and yet to come.