The Veterans Health Administration Office of Inspector General recently released a report documenting a systemic failure by the VA in enrolling eligible veterans for health care benefits through the VA.
The report indicated that of the 800,000 veterans who are waiting to be enrolled to receive health care through the VA, over 300,000 had died while waiting for their enrollment to be processed. In some cases veterans have been waiting over ten years for their enrollment paperwork to be processed.
U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent (PA-15) serves as the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. Dent had been visiting U.S. military bases during the week and meeting with service members.
“The Office of Inspector General’s report on mismanagement at the VA’s Health Eligibility Center has brought to light yet another systemic failure of the VA system,” Dent said. “The thought that veterans who have served America selflessly should be consigned to a bureaucratic limbo and that many actually died while waiting for the health care service they had earned is a national shame.”
This is further proof that the VA health system is broken and that a major change needs to be made in their methods of serving our veterans,” Dent said. “I want to see a greater integration between the VA health care system and the civilian health system because doing so will benefit veterans.”