Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
One year after the VA scandal broke, the Department of Veterans Affairs is learning just how badly they have failed U.S. veterans.
More than 300,000 American military veterans likely died while waiting for health care — and nearly twice as many are still waiting — according to a new Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general report.
The IG report says “serious” problems with enrollment data are making it impossible to determine exactly how many veterans are actively seeking health care from the VA, and how many were. For example, “data limitations” prevent investigators from determining how many now-deceased veterans applied for health care benefits or when.
But the findings would appear to confirm reports that first surfaced last year that many veterans died while awaiting care, as their applications got stuck in a system that the VA has struggled to overhaul. Some applications, the IG report says, go back nearly two decades.
This is absolutely criminal. The real question at hand is, what are they going to do to fix this, and who is going to be brought to justice for the damage and deaths that have occurred because of the negligence of the VA?
As of April 2015, only three VA employees have actually been fired because of the corruption and fraud discovered in the department. That is unacceptable.
