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In a damaging assessment the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Inspector General issued a report that over 300,000 veterans likely died while waiting for health care, with nearly double that amount still waiting for care.

The IG reported that as of September 30, 2014, over 307,000 pending veteran records were for individuals reported as deceased by the Social Security Administration (SSA). However, due to the data weaknesses, we cannot determine specifically how many pending records represent veterans who applied for health care benefits or when they may have applied.

The report continued that Veterans Health Administration home to the largest integrated health care system in the United States, and part of the Department of Veterans Affairs has not adequately established procedures to identify individuals who have died, including those with pending health care enrollment records.

This report would confirm what has been widely known since last year when this scandal first was reported, that veterans died while awaiting care by the VA and many veterans had their applications stuck in a bureaucratic maze which has yet to be over hauled.

The Associated Press reported that about one-third of the 867,000 veterans with pending applications are likely deceased, the report says, adding that “data limitations” prevent investigators from determining how many now-deceased veterans applied for health care benefits or when. The applications go back nearly two decades, and officials said some applicants may have died years ago.

Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chairman and senior Democrat of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a joint statement that the inspector general’s report pointed to “both a significant failure” by leaders at the Health Eligibility Center and “deficient oversight by the VA central office” in Washington.

After the scandal first broke in May 2013, why has nothing changed in veteran care and the handling of veteran health care applications?
At the beginning of 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs budget was around $97 billion, and as of 2015 the VA is spending close to $170 billion, where and how is this money being spent?

We consistently hear leaders from both sides of the political spectrum show outrage over how veterans are treated, this has even seeped into the presidential race, but the problems still persist.

President Obama strongly condemned how are veterans are being treated by commenting at the signing of a VA bill, “If you engage in an unethical practice, if you cover up a serious problem, you should be fired period. It shouldn’t be that difficult. And, if you blow the whistle on an unethical practice or bring a problem to the attention of higher-ups, you should be thanked.”

Again, very few VA administrators have been held to account for the gross mismanagement at the VA, my question where is the Department of Justice in this matter? Why hasn’t there been a DOJ investigation?

Having spent thirty years in the Marines, it was puzzling to me that when I did some research that only around 25% of the VA workforce are veterans. I understand most of the nursing staff and doctors would be non-veterans, but why are all administrators’ non-veterans when we have very capable retired generals and senior level officers able to fill these positions.

Unless Washington has a son or daughter in the military we will continue to have trouble with the Department of Veterans Affairs.