They are told they’ll be cared for and supported every step along the way. They are our nation’s veterans and are part of a system that has spiraled out of control to become inefficient, ineffective and in many cases life-threatening.
Our national correspondent takes a look at just how long many veterans have to wait to receive their benefits once they return home from war.
It was a promise made by President Obama time, “no veteran should have to wait months or years for the benefits that you earned,” Obama said on November 11, 2012.
And time again, “we need to hire additional workers and get an electronic system that’s fully linked up to medical records and VA health networks,” Obama said on August 17, 2009.
But after more than four years, that still has not happened and it’s a major factor in some startling numbers just released. Those numbers include that in the last four years, the number of veterans waiting more than a year to receive benefits has risen a shocking 2,000 percent, despite a 40 percent increase in funding.
“When I left in 2007 I thought my wait was long, waiting three months,” recalled U.S. Air Force Veteran Lourdes Tiglao.
Lourdes Tiglao served two terms in Afghanistan with the U.S. Air Force and worries about a system spiraling out of control.
“What might have been a small issue from the start then becomes a serious issue two years later when you're just seeing a physician to examine you,” Tiglao believes.
A map created by the Center for Investigative Reporting found the average wait time for veterans to be 273 days.
For veterans filing a claim for the first time, that number is more than 315 days.
And for those living in big cities like Los Angeles or New York, it can get up to 642 days that they are waiting to receive benefits.
"These people have volunteered for the service. There is an inherent commitment of society to take care of them if they have been unfortunately wounded in action, either mentally or physically, and we're basically going to be taking care of some of these people until the day they die," explained George Rutherford from the University of California, San Francisco.
VA officials say part of that delay is due to 940,000 more people enrolled than were four years ago, and that there’s a plan in place to fix the problem.
"Our commitment is we're going to end the backlog in 2015. This has been decades in the making, 10 years of war," cited Eric Shinseki, U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs.
But for veterans, struggling and waiting takes a toll and the promise of being cared for is one that for so many is never fulfilled.
Earlier this year, the VA released their plan to try to deal with these issues.
If you’d like to see that plan you can click:
http://benefits.va.gov/transformation/docs/va_strategic_plan_to_eliminate_the_compensation_claims_backlog.pdf
Our national correspondent takes a look at just how long many veterans have to wait to receive their benefits once they return home from war.
It was a promise made by President Obama time, “no veteran should have to wait months or years for the benefits that you earned,” Obama said on November 11, 2012.
And time again, “we need to hire additional workers and get an electronic system that’s fully linked up to medical records and VA health networks,” Obama said on August 17, 2009.
But after more than four years, that still has not happened and it’s a major factor in some startling numbers just released. Those numbers include that in the last four years, the number of veterans waiting more than a year to receive benefits has risen a shocking 2,000 percent, despite a 40 percent increase in funding.
“When I left in 2007 I thought my wait was long, waiting three months,” recalled U.S. Air Force Veteran Lourdes Tiglao.
Lourdes Tiglao served two terms in Afghanistan with the U.S. Air Force and worries about a system spiraling out of control.
“What might have been a small issue from the start then becomes a serious issue two years later when you're just seeing a physician to examine you,” Tiglao believes.
A map created by the Center for Investigative Reporting found the average wait time for veterans to be 273 days.
For veterans filing a claim for the first time, that number is more than 315 days.
And for those living in big cities like Los Angeles or New York, it can get up to 642 days that they are waiting to receive benefits.
"These people have volunteered for the service. There is an inherent commitment of society to take care of them if they have been unfortunately wounded in action, either mentally or physically, and we're basically going to be taking care of some of these people until the day they die," explained George Rutherford from the University of California, San Francisco.
VA officials say part of that delay is due to 940,000 more people enrolled than were four years ago, and that there’s a plan in place to fix the problem.
"Our commitment is we're going to end the backlog in 2015. This has been decades in the making, 10 years of war," cited Eric Shinseki, U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs.
But for veterans, struggling and waiting takes a toll and the promise of being cared for is one that for so many is never fulfilled.
Earlier this year, the VA released their plan to try to deal with these issues.
If you’d like to see that plan you can click:
http://benefits.va.gov/transformation/docs/va_strategic_plan_to_eliminate_the_compensation_claims_backlog.pdf