Something seems amiss in the new “non-economy”. Since the beginning of the recession, many have lost employment and, by extension, their health care. Those of us who are Veterans have always had one constant we could fall back on in hard times, This was the promise of a grateful nation that we would always have health care and not be forsaken.

Sadly, I have to report that the promise is ever present but the reality is evaporating. I now have heard from Vets who tell me they cannot get treatment from VAMCs or VAOPCs. The problem is not so much in signing up as it is in getting an appointment.

When we signed up to serve, promises were made and gifts were exchanged. Now we are faced with trying to cash in on the promises we were given. VA is being recalcitrant and not very forthcoming with their end of the bargain.

My friend Harvey traveled from South Dakota to Las Vegas in desperation. There are no gastrodocs or Hepatologists available to him up north. VA outsources it all. Now they aren’t funding the outsourcing. What better way to get service than by voting with your feet. No dice. As soon as the folks at the LVVAMC  figured it out, the jig was up. Their reasoning is, well, who knows what their reasoning is?

A Veteran is a Federal person by rights. They have no state affiliation where the Government is concerned. It’s not like welfare where you have to be a resident of a state for a period of time before you get benefits. A Veteran should be able to present himself at a VAMC anywhere in the US or the overseas VAMCs in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam etc. and be given the same services. It would be unreasonable to send a Vet back to the State he had most recently lived in for medical care from, say, Guam.

It seems all that has changed. While it seems you can show up and register, getting an appointment might result in death before any meaningful medical intervention occurs.

Harvey reports he has been in contact with other HCV positive Vets who find themselves similarly situated in that they are without meaningful medical coverage. Apparently the VA is reducing its coverage and help for HCV patients by shrinking the number of clinics that specialize in it. There appear to be four now in the midwest and the east and all are to the north of the old Mason Dixon line.

As we know, HCV is often accompanied by ill health and an inability to work. This oddly creates poverty and no funds to afford decent medical accessibility to care. Veterans are now seeing this new abortionized “Obamacare” first hand and they don’t like what they see. If this is the new VA, perhaps they need to rethink their priorities.

The bulge in the python of Veterans’ HCV is now reaching a crescendo. It started as we can see, in the early 1990s when a generation of Vietnam Vets became aware that something was amiss. It has since ballooned into a crisis that is overwhelming the system at a time when the Government is ill-equipped to deal with it. The demands of the Iraqi and Afghan returnees is simply exceeding their resources. VA, like the proverbial ostrich, has chosen to hide its collective head in the sand and hope the problem will go away. It will. It’s just that “going away” means going off to die somewhere.

State dollars are not available for this endeavor because they rightfully assume this is a Federal issue involving Veterans, hence the “Not it!” mentality. Simply waiting for Vets to seek alternate help from as yet unidentified sources is not an option for VA. Signing Vets up with no intention of granting them access to the promised medical care isn’t either. It may be time to start pestering your Congressmen and Senators over this. The status quo is not an option that will end well.