Promises Not Kept, Pt. I
Tags: Veterans, Veterans Affairs, Trump Administration, Donald Trump

Trump’s War Against the Department of Veterans Affairs: Donors Call the Shots; Veterans Are Collateral Damage

By Greg Douquet, Kayla Williams, and Melissa Bryant

President Trump made Veterans Affairs a signature issue for his Administration, but if you look at the evidence, he has failed to deliver.

At the June 6, 2018 signing of the VA MISSION Act, President Trump said: “This bill speeds up the claims process, increases the health services, expands access to walk-in clinics, and fights opioid addiction. These are sweeping, historic changes. There’s never been anything like this in the history of the VA — never been anything close — and we will not rest until the job is fully done.”

Let’s set the record straight: the VA MISSION Act has not sped up the claims and appeals processes, Veterans are being abandoned at the door of the emergency room, and red tape and delays are the trolls under the bridge. In the following paragraphs we will introduce real and composite examples of Veterans who have suffered in various ways under the Trump VA.

A 5 Year Wait for a Hearing

Lisa served two tours in Iraq in the mid-2000s. Two years after her separation from service she was diagnosed with a rare cancer and a blood disorder that she attributes to being downwind from large open burn pits in Iraq that regularly resulted in clouds of acrid smoke blowing through areas where she was working. Her claims for disability compensation were denied because her conditions were diagnosed more than a year after service. Her private physician prepared an opinion that her conditions were at least as likely as not related to exposure to burn pits in Iraq. However, a VA physician opined that the conditions could not be ascribed to any specific cause. Lisa filed an appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals in May 2019 and requested a hearing. It’s unlikely that Lisa’s hearing will be scheduled before 2023. Until then, no action will be taken. There are presently over 90,000 Veterans waiting for a hearing. If you do the math, hearings can take up to five years for Veterans applying today, and that number is only expected to climb. Every day four Veterans waiting at the Board die without ever getting an answer on their appeal. Justice delayed is indeed justice denied.

Abandoned at the Emergency Room Door

Peter Boerschinger, 79, is a Veteran of the U.S. Navy who served for four years and was designated with a 30 percent disability. In April 2018, Boerschinger received emergency treatment for pneumonia and congestive heart failure from a non-VA provider in Michigan. The VA hospital closest to him had closed their emergency room and directed patients to seek emergency treatment elsewhere. During his hospitalization, doctors attempted to transfer him to the VA hospital several times, but were told there was no room for him. He later submitted a claim to the VA for reimbursement of $1,340.00 associated with his emergency care that was not covered by his health insurance. He received a denial letter from the VA based solely on the grounds that he had other insurance coverage. After attempting to negotiate with VA he was forced to pay the full amount. Peter is living on Social Security and in a fixed-income county home and this money represented a heavy sacrifice for him.

How many Peters are out there we don’t even know about? A lot.

Red Tape and Delays are the Trolls Under the Bridge

Tasha is a Gulf War Veteran. She applied for service connection for fibromyalgia in 2015. VA denied her claim in 2016 and she filed a Notice of Disagreement to appeal her claim to the Board. Over a year later, VA sent her a Statement of the Case continuing to deny her claim. In 2019, she was still waiting for VA to transfer her file to the Board so that it could be considered. In June 2019, the Court of Appeals for Veterans’ Claims (CAVC) found that VA was violating Tasha’s due process rights by taking an average of nearly three years to complete the administrative task of transferring files to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals so the appeal could be processed.

CAVC recently certified a class action to provide relief to thousands of Veterans affected by similar delays. VA admitted that as of August 2019 more than 2,500 Veterans had been waiting at least 18 months for a simple internal transfer of their files from the Benefits Administration to the Board. How long does it take to move a set of files from one room to another?

There’s More

Expansion of Agent Orange presumptive conditions for Vietnam Veterans is long overdue. Pre-9/11 Veteran caregivers have not benefited from the MISSION Act, as the president promised they would. The claims backlog has doubled since 2017. The VA has also made it harder for accredited Veteran Service Officers to do their jobs supporting Veterans. There is nothing partisan about improving support for Veterans and our families. America wants a Veteran Affairs policy that offers substance rather than rhetoric. Americans want a Veteran Affairs plan that will strengthen and maintain the 170 Hospitals and 1,063 outpatient sites which comprise the VA Health System while ensuring seamless community care is available when necessary, ensure that Veterans in need of emergency services are not ruined financially, and drive the claims backlog down to where it should be.

There is a lot of work to be done to live up to the ideals that led our Veterans to commit themselves to service to our country. It’s time to keep our promises to them. And that means electing a REAL Commander in Chief — Joe Biden.

Colonel (Ret) Greg Douquet is a former U.S. Marine

Kayla Williams is a U.S. Army Veteran and former director of VA’s Center for Women Veterans

Melissa Bryant is a military and Veteran advocate, former U.S. Army Captain and Department of Defense senior civil servant