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Since the war on terrorism began in 2001, questions about veterans’ issues have played a role in military and national defense rounds. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan added thousands of injured veterans to the list of those receiving care at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals throughout the country. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) current provides cares to nearly 10,000,000 American veterans across 1,700 sites. The VHA has been heralded as a healthcare success among other elements of bureaucratic dysfunction that are sometimes associated with the federal government, but a recent scandal has called into question the care that veterans are receiving. Allegations from a Phoenix VA facility that medical professionals there “cooked the books” to hide long waiting times for veterans in need of care have placed Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki under fire and Republicans and Democrats are calling for answers from the Obama administration.
This topic brief will give some background on the Department of Veterans Affairs and its functions, detail what is behind the current scandal, and note some issues that extempers should follow as the VA scandal unfolds in the coming weeks and months.
Readers are also encouraged to use the links below and in the related R&D to bolster their files about this topic.
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