IAVA Survey Upends Department Of Veterans Affairs Claims

IAVA Survey

Benjamin KrauseA recently released IAVA survey upends questionable claims made following a similar evaluation released by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America) survey highlights the impact of the disability compensation wait list. It also highlights growing dissatisfaction with VA health care. The latter claim upends a recent assertion from VA that veterans prefer VA health care versus non-VA health care.

SEE IT: IAVA Survey – The Wait We Carry

The difference between the two claims is that IAVA gathered actual claims from veterans while the VA claim relied on a bait and switch to justify gutting the Veterans Choice Card program. Politics as usual for VA health care?

You see, VA craftily claimed veterans prefer VA health care by citing how few veterans were using Veteran Choice Card program after just three months. Of course, using the program is near impossible for most veterans who find VA health care unacceptable.

RELATED: Politicians, VA Already Plot To Gut Veterans Choice Card Program

So can VA honestly tell America veterans largely prefer VA health care just because few veterans use Veterans Choice?

It would be like saying most poor Americans like being poor because the majority of them live at or below the poverty level. This would be a stupid claim, and almost as stupid as claiming lack of using Veterans Choice means veterans love VA health care. The fact of poor Americans being poor certainly does not show they prefer being poor.

Once we blew the doors off the Veterans Choice deception, VA was forced to answer tough questions. Does this freakishly deceptive position VA tried to trick America with shock anyone anymore?

According to IAVA’s survey of 2,025 American veterans, only half of the veterans said VA health care at least “acceptable.” This paints a different picture than the high 90 score (however they came up with that number, I do not know) claimed by the agency just after the Phoenix wait list scandal surfaced a year ago.

Can you believe the difference? Who do you think is closer to accurate? I think the IAVA survey is closer to my own experience. What about you?

RELATED: Veterans Choice Card Reversal Doubles Access To Non-VA Care

The great thing about the website is you can drill down into what veterans say in your state. This allows veterans, journalists and politicians an opportunity to drill down further into the data VHA previously held under lock and key.

Take a look at Texas. Approximately 15% of those surveyed stated the condition of VA health care is unacceptable while another 45% said it was minimally acceptable. Since when was minimal standards for veterans considered okay?

Source: https://www.thewaitwecarry.org/

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23 Comments

  1. I am terrified to have any one at the VA to treat me. Therefore I do not go.

    I pray I live long enough for medicare and real doctors

  2. If an affected veteran, know one, spouse or offspring add your statement in comment area too! All 18+ can sign!

    Our government needs to do its job and take care of the veterans as prescribed by law, Abe Lincoln and DOD regulations.

    Will you sign this petition? Click below to review many comments and decide, ~ 4,340+ have.

    https://signon.org/sign/equality-wrt-vet-dioxin
    Agent Orange and other Dioxin toxins.

    SIGN, Pass along to others too (family, friends and your email list), post link to group pages like FB every few days, and [SHARE] and re[SHARE] with everyone!

    https://benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets/serviceconnected/presumption.pdf
    = current VA Presumption.pdf and some presumed medical conditions

    https://www.veteranprograms.com/id1071.html <<<< Agent Orange Presumptive Disabilities

    https://www.vva.org/Guides/AgentOrangeGuide.pdf <<< Very good guide

    https://makeagentorangehistory.org/agent-orange-resources/background/health-effects-of-agent-orange-dioxin/

    https://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/ Contact congress

    [email protected] Top of the VA, send your details

    Search BVA decisions https://www.index.va.gov/search/va/bva.html

  3. U.S.M.C. Veterine in Montana (Me),waited for 5 months to see a primary phys 60 miles trip 1 way received a notice 3 days before appt. to be 30 minutes early…showed up 1 hr early and they said cancelled…that appt was last december, now I have appt in mid. June (1 year to get to see a VA Dr.) maybe cancel before I travel 120 miles would not stress me out as much, on the other hand there’s an Emergency Room…2.5 hours to drive 60 miles through blizzard… $35. gas I’ll die first before they get it right no kidding. by the way mountain driving….Ice on all roads…15 deg below

    1. Interesting. Seems Miller has found out veterans are fed up with the lack of hard-nosed oversight. I hope he puts the screws to McDonald and gets the documents he and Johnson want on both Philly and Tomah. There is no excuse for stonewalling, and no excuse for the IG to withhold documents wanted for oversight.
      As for that VA spokes hack, care for veterans was politicized long ago. The IG withholding documents is politicization. Refusing to cooperate with elected bodies performing their oversight duties is politicization. What exactly is political about wanting to find out why the IG did not do their jobs at Tomah? If they are so concerned over veterans care being politicized, they should be more willing to listen to what veterans need, and it won’t become political by having to go to an oversight committee to get the VA to take action.

  4. Veterans Choice card was another failed promise that was full of fluff, but nothing else. I never received a card; I know of so many others who have not received a card either?

    This was a scheme to get the public off the VA and Congress wants to look as if they are doing some thing to improve the VA.

    I was not satisfied with my claim process, it was a huge let down. The funny thing was that originally they said it might take up to 15 months to get a ruling, Imagine my amazement to get a letter after only 9 months. It quickly became evident what the VA was doing and that was clearing up their backlog. This way they could lie and report to Congress that they were catching up.

    1. I agree about the card. I would use it if I was able to. Love it when the dr office calls right when you are walking out for your appointment amd cancel. Then tell you we will call to reschedule and a week passes with nothing. The big thing is the 40 miles. Need to include specialty clinics that the local office don’t have. I need orthopedic care and haveto drive 2 and a half hours to get care, but I can’t use my card locally where there are 10 or more Dr’s to see. Due to the fact that I have “a” clinic less than 40 miles away from home. Stupid escape clause. Come on let us use the stupid card instead of driving so far. I hate making that trip it is a very painful trip and it takes forever to be seen.

  5. Every Vet I have spoken with would prefer care outside of the VA’s “High Risk” medicine.

  6. FYI.
    VistA is your electronics medical records which started with the Kaiser Permanente Federation Group(their printout pic plan to get the money from D.C.) with the DOD.
    The planner David M. Lawrence who started at kaiser 1986.
    Look up David Lawrence cia….an Interesting look at his idea of medicine & who’s he’s on BOARD & other connections. He was on the board of the UCLA Regents with Richard Blum,Feinstein’s hubby, among other corporate boards including connections with AON, KPMG.. Blum made lots of money from energy in Afghanistan & Iraq. because of his wife’s no bid military contracts..
    Our employee records went from paper to computer in 1987 BY THE Air Force.
    WAR is HELL, unless one can make money off of it..
    A connection is a connection in all health care=money terms..

  7. I’ve learned using Vets choice program is nearly impossible, like ice skating uphill. If VA would just give up this ridiculous dysfunctional healthcare system, and insure 100% private care, pay comp claims as promised….. Veterans would be much happier and so would the taxpayers. As usual, uncle sam and congress won’t listen to vets and are always in some form of costly denial. Sadly the biggest cost is to us Vets.

    1. Prior to receiving care from nearby doctors or hospitals, you must apply to the VA for specific care from a specific facility on specific date and time. Who pays if they don’t call back with approval in time for your appointment? It is useless as now organized. It seems to be constructed to fail. Why not make it possible to use any Medicare approved facility and pay them at Medicare rates? It is sickening to face the government regulations when you are already ill or hurt.

  8. IF you look at the union that represents the DOD/VA, then you’ll get an idea of why there is so much incompetence. Employees from both don’t get an incentive to do good for vet’s. Incompetence is encouraged to cut corners for both employers. Both federal employers with AFGE signed the contractual agreement. THE less skilled or easily indoctrinated.will all but guarantee incompetence. This occured at the medical facilities I was employed at while at Kaiser This is all about money and who holds the power. The unions are in on it together for employers while they get unions dues & they’ll make sure at some point these same employees who worked incompetently will not get any of their promised benefits either. which include retirement & health care benefits. In 1992 when many workers were going out the door while on comp got neither. This was all about not just union dues but pensions & healthcare pensions. We were promised everything but got instead got broke & broken. Fidelity & AON/KPMG are all a part of this giant American & Veteran ripoff.
    So where is your contract as a soldier with the DOD and what promises were written down what you would receive becoming injured?.
    Because while on Active duty, one relative had to file a worker’s comp claim BECAUSE he was an active soldier 24/7! That is what he was told by the military who had him file for a comp claim as or as otherwise known as risk management. Employers with unions are a part of a nasty network to abscond all funds with the kaiser/kpmg acct’ firm(military) with fidelity investment /insurance & with AON. That goes for SSA/Medicare/Medicaid TOO.. IT’s all about ripping off promised benefits including HEALTHCARE… LIKE YOUR HEALTH CARE!
    Money trails don’t lie. .

  9. How does one prove or establish that he cannot get into see a doctor within the 30 days so he can then go to an outside doctor? Next question, does this include outside doctors to perform different procedures that the Veteran is suppose to have?

  10. I have VA healthy care because I am a 100 SC vet. I fear the third rate practitioners and staff at VA and the money grubbing managers who lie and cover up. And even when I get fee base care, private providers don’t want to accept VA payment, because they don’t trust VA either. My wife gets CHAMPVA health insurance, she is happy as a clam, is welcome ANYWHERE as a patient and loves CHAMPVA. Why can’t Vets have CHAMPVA too?
    .

    1. Yes Ronald I find that funny too. My wife gets great care from CHAMPVA and I am stuck at the VA Slaughter house being butchered and neglected. They butchered me on one Agent Orange cancer operation. Neglected to find a nodule in my lung on another type of Agent Orange cancer (paid for my own civilian doctor who found it), refused to provide treatment for the lung problem cause the VA doctor flatly said that Agent Orange does not cause cancer and there was no reason for him to do anything. The VA has turned into a slaughter house designed to kill Veterans so they will not have to pay us compensation. “Dead men receive no compensation” and the widow’s benefit is half so they really save.
      Budget management by slaughter.

  11. “Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

    Theodore Roosevelt, “A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.” 1903

    Chris Hayes : “If you can run a deficit to go to war, you can run a deficit to take care of the people who fought it” In response to Republican, long ago lost as the party of Lincoln and not just as to us Veterans, opposition to expanding Veterans’ benefits on fiscal grounds

    Sen. Bernie Sanders told Conservatives: “If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, than don’t go war. These people are bearing the brunt of what war is about, We have a moral obligation to support them.” February, 26th, 2014

    “With no shared sacrifices being asked of civilians after Sept. 11″

    Neither of these recent wars have yet been paid for, nor the continued blowback from the spread and growth from the policies implemented!

    Neither the long term results from, including the long ignored or outright denied existence of, till this Administrations Cabinet and Gen Shinseki, only Government branch consistent for the past six years, Veterans issues from!

    As well as under deficits most of the, grossly under funded for decades and the wars from now, VA budget is still borrowed, with interest, thus added problem creating costs, with representative who control the purse strings blaming the mostly dedicated VA personal within, that shouldn’t exist!

    “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln

    “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan” – President Lincoln

    USN All Shore ’67-’71 GMG3 Vietnam In Country ’70-’71 – Independent**

  12. Was there *ever* an official release of how and where the VA obtained their not only slanted numbers but how after the ink is barely dry on said Choice Cards, some yet even mailed, only 3 months after program implemented?
    Why does the VA use TWO outside contractors for this program, which adds not only confusion, but further delays? They use -1- Contractor to print AND mail the Choice Cards, and a -#2- Contractor in which you have to call that relies solely on a VA-supplied database of whom is exactly eligible.
    Why exactly is an outside Contractor needed to do this and why is their provided info to said Contractor STILL either out of date and/or flat-out not complying with further access orders from Congress?

    How is all our personal info even protected when it’s open to outside Contractors?

    Has the VA actually used this “middleman contractor” method strategically to dissuade Veterans with more VA Red Tape?
    Seems rather “Engineered To Fail” from the start. Is the VA that incompetent that they could not have directly answered the phones and approved use of Choice Card? Is the “Contractor Between Veteran and VA” there only for legal reasons to pad their liability?
    Inquiring minds indeed wish to know how much LESS this program would have projected in cost *without* using outside Contractors?

    1. Engineered to fail? Yes it was. A contractor protecting your private information provided by the VA? Who would know? Who would inform a veteran if their private information was misused or lost? This is similar to the VA providing my personal information to a private contractor to discover whether I had private health insurance, then billing them within days of having surgery for a service connected condition, then fighting the VA for months to reverse that mistake. I have yet to figure out how the VA can be so damn slow at providing care, yet move so fast on billing. Of course, that provision of personal information to a VA contractor is all authorized by the Bastards in Congress who refuse to ask that last question.

  13. The, Poser, patriots{?} continue using us Veterans, as political and merchandising tools, especially so called conservative, extremism instead, ideologies, as if they really care:

    “Conservatives Continue Blocking Military Veterans’ Access to Medical Marijuana”
    Conservative Think, American Enterprise Institute, Tanks Own: “Sally Satel Still Selling Care for PTSD Veterans is Waste of Money”. Long Time, Vietnam, Veterans Nemesis and Denier
    Giving long time, Veterans nemesis Sally, from the Conservative Think Tank ‘American Enterprise Institute’, another big smile! Giving Conservatives their talking points and the citizens served whole heartedly following their lead as the decades long, wars from, obstruction to the peoples responsibility, the VA budgets, continues! She’s made herself quite infamous and wealthy over the decades with her writings and speeches doing what the country, especially conservatives, wanted in ignoring or out right denying the many issues of Veterans, especially from our, poser, patriotic wars!

    “Maine politicians seek answers for veterans who cleaned up after nuclear testing”

    DeJa-Vu, Conservatives/Country Served, Once Again, Seek VA Budget Cuts, $1.4 Billion
    “$1.4 billion in cuts will cause veterans to suffer, says Veterans Affairs chief”
    April 21st, 2015 – A House subcommittee’s plan to cut the budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs by more than $1.4 billion next year will “cause veterans to suffer,” VA Secretary Robert McDonald said Tuesday.>>>

    “With no shared sacrifices being asked of civilians after Sept. 11″

    More, DeJa-Vu, GOP ‘support the troops’ Con, Reality Check: April 29, 2015 – “House GOP Wants To Stop The Pentagon From Protecting Military Families From Financial Predators”>>>>

    So many issues long ignored or outright denied, and that second link is just on PTS {google Sally Satel ‘Sally Satel Still Selling Care for PTSD Veterans is Waste of Money’ and more can be found}, exist by the Country served who’s responsibility is the Veterans Administration, finally started being addressed under Sec. Shinseki and the Obama Executive branches Cabinet help. But it’s easier, and much cheaper up front, leading to costly problems, needing quick borrowed capital or taken from the already grossly under funded VA budgets, it’s like cutting corners when building anything, that continue re-servicing over and over, to follow the conservative, media hyped scandals easier then real journalism and actual facts because most have been served not serving, line of laying blame on the agency and it’s personal. The VA has been grossly under funded for decades and wars from, thus not built on the promises made by those served who have lacked any Sacrifice, especially the past decade plus with tax cuts and then total conservative obstruction yet it still functions as best it can as it always has!! The conservative politicians leading the attacks as they seek to privatize that responsibility for bottom line corporate profits for the principles and investors of, which would be very costly for the people served and damaging to the veterans who served them especially in our, poser, patriotic wars theaters!!

    Thousands of people across America don’t just talk about honoring Veterans; they walk the walk. ** Dedicated Volunteers Serve Veterans for Decades **

    “Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

    USN All Shore ’67-’71 GMG3 Vietnam In Country ’70-’71 – Independent**

  14. My wife and child get care on demand, thanks to CHAMPVA, while I get my annual exam canceled without notice because my VA doc went on vacation. I waited 6 weeks for that one, and that was a reschedule because they kept scheduling my intakes for care as 30 minute appointments rather than 60 minutes like they are supposed to. I have been trying to get properly established with my Central Texas VA clinic since October 2014 and I am still not all the way established with care.

    I say turn this situation around or burn it to the ground and let me get care like everyone else – in the community!

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