VA Issues – Part I of a Multipart Series
This subject has been mentally fermenting with me for a while, so I thought it was about time to “bottle it” – so to speak.
I’ve written a short series of articles giving my thoughts on current VA issues – and why they exist. The first part follows this introduction.
BLUF: IMO the VA today is fundamentally broken. Bluntly, IMO it’s so badly broken and so dysfunctional that as it’s currently structured I’m not sure it can be fixed.
But the VA nonetheless performs a necessary function. It fulfills a moral obligation our nation has to vets who were sickened or injured in the service of our nation. So we can’t simply throw up our hands, say, “F**k it!”, and disband it either. At least some of what the VA does needs to be done.
And I’ll give everyone fair warning: as a group, IMO we vets aren’t blameless, either.
I will absolutely guarantee that at least some of what I say will p!ss off some – and maybe all – of TAH’s readers. So be it.
That’s OK. Freedom is messy sometimes. But I think I can also guarantee that what I say will make you think, at least a little. Maybe collectively we can begin to figure out how to start fixing the problem.
The first 5 articles will discuss some current issues with the VA. I’ve got those written; they’ll be posted over the next few days.
The follow-on articles aren’t yet written. In them, I plan to provide my thoughts on how to bring some sanity to the current chaos. Those ideas won’t be painless. They might or might not be half-baked, or workable at all. But hell, maybe they’ll also stimulate some serious thought – and discussion on how to fix the problem.
Lord knows, the VA needs fixing. Badly.
Without more ado, here’s part one.
VA Issues, Part I: It Ain’t A Resource Problem
First, let’s discuss what the problem with today’s VA is not.
So, tell me: what is the VA’s annual budget? How much do they spend? And how much has that gone up since 9/11?
I ask that because I’ll virtually guarantee we’re likely to see claims from the VA that “we need more resources to fix things” due to the recent scandals. And as we all know Congress loves throwing money at problems, real or imagined – even though as a nation we’re already as broke as a young E4 with a nonworking spouse, 2 kids, and a car payment living “on the economy” in a high-cost area about 2 days before payday.
The underlying question is nonetheless a fair one: does the VA have the resources to do the job it should be doing? IMO, the answer to that question is “Yes – in spades.”
Here’s why I say that.
- In FY2001, which ended on 30 Sep 2001, the VA’s total budget (adjusted for inflation with 2012 as the reference year), was just under $61.45 billion.
- In FY2009, which ended on 30 Sep 2009, the VA’s budget (again adjusted for inflation with 2012 as the reference year) was just under $102.43 billion. That’s an increase of over 2/3 (66.68%) in 8 years.
- This fiscal year, the VA is projected to spend just under $147.95 billion (again, adjusted for inflation with 2012 as the reference year; the actual amount in current dollars is higher). That’s an additional increase over 2009 of 44.44% – in 5 years.
- Next fiscal year (which ends on 30 Sep 2015), the VA is projected to spend over $156.69 billion – again, adjusted for inflation with 2012 as reference.
From 30 Sep 2001 to 30 Sep 2015, the VA’s budget will have grown (in inflation adjusted dollars) from roughly $61.5 billion to nearly $156.7 billion.
That’s an increase of 155% in 14 years.
Let that sink in for a moment. Today, the VA spends over 2 and 1/2 times as much money IN REAL TERMS (that is, after inflation is taken into account) as it did 14 years ago. That is a REAL growth rate of approximately 6.7% a year for 14 years.
Has DoD’s growth mirrored that? Has your paycheck grown similarly, in real terms? The answer to the former is “hell no”. And I’ll be willing to bet that for virtually everyone reading this, the answer to the second is likely a resounding “no” as well.
If that continues, in another 17 years the VA’s budget will roughly equal – or exceed – that of DoD.
That’s not affordable.
I’m sorry, but we do NOT have over 2.5 times as many veterans today than we did in 2001. Nor, frankly, do we have over 2.5 times as many disabled veterans today than we had in 2001. So I’m forced to conclude that the VA gets enough money – or maybe more than enough – to do the job it should be doing.
Indeed, the last 14 years has been the greatest sustained period of massively increasing VA spending in US history. Even the period of US involvement in Vietnam (1962-1975) did not show this large a proportional increase. VA spending during that 14-year period did not double, increasing by only approximately 91.3%. And a helluva lot more people were in the military during Vietnam than has been the case during the last 14 years.
Only the immediate aftermath of World War II comes close. And while VA spending was (in 2012 dollars) huge for about 6 years after the war, it peaked in 1947 – and declined by nearly 60% by 1952.
The problem IMO is not caused by a lack of money. The VA is now spending close to 1/3 annually of what DoD spends. And the VA doesn’t employ nearly 2.3 million people full-time, plus another million (or thereabouts) part-time.
And if the cause of the problem isn’t a lack of money, then obviously it’s something else.
. . .
Notes on Data Sources
VA Budget Data, 1940-2012: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22897.pdf
VA budget data for 2013-2015: http://www.va.gov/budget/docs/summary/Fy2015-FastFactsVAsBudgetHighlights.pdf
CPI Inflation Adjustment Factors for 2013-2014: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
Inflation for the current year (affecting the 2015 VA budget’s purchasing power next year) is currently projected to be approx. 1.3%.
Category: Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department
No controversy so far, Hondo. Am in complete agreement so far.
Wow. I’m not surprised that the VA’s budget has been increased; after years of war, we obviously have more disabled vets than we used to. But I AM surprised at the magnitude of the budget increase. I had no idea. I agree, they ought to have plenty of money to do the job right.
Hondo, I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.
Thank you Hondo. Waiting to read more articles. I agree, money, or the lack thereof is not the problem so I look forward to your next write up.
Logic is sound so far.
Well, my wife, who served almost 4 years, was turned down by VA for coverage because ‘we make too much money’.
My ex-sister in law is married to a Vietnam-era guy who was drafted, wound up in the Navy and I believe never heard a shot fired. Great guy, and recently came up with ALS, which sucks. He was a successful contractor, I believe, and she was an extremely successful software trainer – their annual income until she retired recently was about 3 times ours. She, who married him 25 years after his service, is 100% covered by VA.
Now don’t get me wrong – they are great folks and I wish them both all the best. But I think it illustrates that while the money may be there, it is not efficiently utilized nor equitably applied.
The only thing I could say about this is that there is a differance between VA disability benifits and VA health care. Hondo may cover this in one of his later articles but the VA is divided in to three main departments which don’t always talk to one another.
VA Health is supposed to be only for the Vet and the cost is income dependant. VA disibilty on the other hand is not income dependant (unless your a retiree and rated bellow 50%, but we’ll save that one for another time).
Hondo- I’m an active duty officer who lost a leg in Iraq in 2005 and earned my PhD in 2011 on veterans policy. I wrote an academic paper that you’ll be interested in- it was published last year. It’s free at the link:
http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/a-better-way-to-help-veterans
Dan
I’d like to see numbers on how much of the money actually went to health care, versus administration, management, PR, spin control, bribes to elected officials, and other crap!
Another good question is how much of that goes to paying things like disiablity, MGIB/Post 9-11 GI Bill, vocational rehab, etc
Fjardeson: for FY2015, about 36.4% of the VA’s budget will go for medical care. About 58.4% will go for “mandatory programs” (compensation, pension, GI bill, loan guarantees, etc ….). 2.4% will go to IT. Discretionary benefits, construction, and “other” burn the remaining 2.8%.
http://www.va.gov/budget/docs/summary/Fy2015-FastFactsVAsBudgetHighlights.pdf
I was checking the status of a disability claim I’d filed with the VA in January (so it hasn’t been as long as I thought it had) and decided to go poking around eBenefits and found my appeal for my other claim.
Apparently the VA had granted the American Legion a Power of Attorney in that matter without my knowledge or consent.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d totally like to have the American Legion in my corner. But I’d like to know about it first. When I initially appealed in 2010, I received a letter acknowledging my appeal and then it went on to say something about how I had indicated to them that I wanted the American Legion to assist me.
I had said no such thing. I was not, at the time, a member of the Legion nor had I used the words American or Legion in any combination in my letter to the VA. I wrote back and said so.
I heard nothing further on the matter. I probably shouldn’t have accepted that at face value.
If they’re going to just completely ignore me on matters like this (HIPAA violations, anyone?), what else are they ignoring?
Why should I trust the VA when they do things like this?
I have said it before and I will say it again, if people like my ex husband we’re not wasting the doctors and all the other staff of the VA then maybe there would be more time and more room to fit the true Veterans in a timely manner
I got out of the Army in 1976. The VA guaranteed two house mortgages – they had no reason to regret either decision – and I took some money for college courses. Not many courses, not much money. Numba one son is getting VA money for his Master’s degree (he had his BS when he enlisted). I figure that the VA is ahead on us.
I count on you guys and gals for sensible comments. I saw one just last week and there was another one in January … 🙂
I eagerly await Mr. Hondo’s perspective.
If that’s the case, then they’re WAY ahead on me. I didn’t even use my GI Bill benefits, and have never set foot in any facility for healthcare aside from my own private civilian doctor.
Not even sure I rate any kind of benefits from the VA, and even if I did, don’t need them, don’t want them.
Always wondered how they are internally billing services. How many MRIs do you run at full price until the machine is amortized? And how many have they done since then, while still accounting for them at full price? How much is creative accounting and how much the real deal?