Well, it’s been three months since my last examination at the VA hospital. Three months since the VA doctors completed my Compensation and Pension (C&P) exam. Three months beyond the twelve months it took to get me to that point.
That’s four-hundred-sixty-three days of waiting for the Department of Veterans Affairs to adjudicate my case. It’s not only me who is waiting. Some 750,000 other veterans’ pension cases are backed up in the system. None of us receive our pensions. None of us can enroll in vocational rehabilitation training. None of us can claim to be disabled veterans on job applications. This despite the fact that half of the VA (the Veterans Health Administration) provides us with treatment for our medical problems.
The system is badly broken. Over five months ago, a court determined that these system failures violated the civil rights of the Americans the administration is supposed to serve. On Veterans Day it will be six months since the court ruled against the VA and in favor of veterans. When will the VA secretary and the president fix the problems?