Misplaced priorities at the Department of Veterans Affairs are hurting veterans

For too long, we have heard the complaints and seen the abundant evidence from U.S. military veterans and their families about a scandalously substandard system administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs to care for their needs.

As a member of Congress focused on the needs of our veterans, I hear the stories every day: chronic understaffing of VA facilities, unconscionably long waits for health care and mental health counseling, a six-figure backlog of benefit claims that continues to grow, an overreliance on medication instead of more innovative and effective treatments for those lucky enough to receive attention from the VA bureaucracy.

Unfortunately, all of these negative trends persist today, even though budgets at the VA are at historic highs under the current administration. 

Our dysfunctional VA system of care is less the result of a lack of means than of tragically misplaced priorities, and a bureaucracy that has become more interested in self-preservation and political posturing than it is in serving the urgent needs of our nation’s veterans. 

Earlier this month, the public was provided a glimpse into the misplaced priorities of some in this bureaucracy when a report revealed that at least a dozen staffers at the VA improperly accessed the medical records of both vice presidential candidates, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), in a seemingly clear violation of federal health privacy laws. Some of the staffers reportedly told investigators they “were simply curious” about the candidates’ medical and service records, with no intent to use them for political purposes. 

Whether you believe that unlikely explanation or not, it’s clear that these are bureaucrats with too much time on their hands, a rather egregious state of affairs in an agency failing to serve the pressing needs of our nation’s veterans. 

The fact is, the VA bureaucracy in Washington is in desperate need of reform. Although former President Donald Trump made some inroads (despite agency opposition) during his first administration — including making Community Care part of a “Veteran-centric” approach designed to ensure veterans can participate more fully in their health care decisions including options outside the VA system — much of that progress has already been watered down or reversed under the Biden-Harris administration.

The rate of referrals to private doctors has slowed to a trickle, and some VHA facilities are reportedly manipulating the Community Care access standards that had been intended to make care by private providers more accessible.

The truth is that a politicized VA bureaucracy in Washington has partisan reasons for resisting reform and clinging to an antiquated system of centralized care that is no longer responsive to the real needs of our veterans. In the meantime, our veterans’ spiraling mental health crisis, the multiplying issues related to toxic exposures, and the epidemic of veteran suicide, remain largely unaddressed.

The policies we have to cope with these crises are clearly not effective. As long as this is the case, it is unacceptable for the Biden-Harris VA to be devoting inordinate attention to the promotion of abortion services and advocating coverage of elective gender reassignment surgery. Most veterans, and most Americans, would agree that this indicates a Department of Veterans’ Affairs whose priorities are out of whack. 

The election of Donald Trump to a second term would provide an opportunity to right the ship and get those priorities in order. Despite the lack of progress, achieving the goal of a responsive and effective VA that serves the urgent needs of our veterans should not be enormously difficult, since there is widespread consensus within the veterans’ community about what needs to be done.  

We need to start with an independent audit of VA health services that both addresses the effectiveness of current programs and ferrets out waste, fraud and abuse in the current bureaucracy. That way, we can turn VA resources to addressing the real priorities.

First, address the backlog of claims by streamlining the claims-review process. At the same time, we need to protect veterans from predatory practices with a rigorous system of accrediting representatives who assist veterans in filing appeals of benefit claims. With accreditation, we can weed out the unscrupulous actors while still supporting the network of private organizations that have become vital allies in helping veterans navigate the system. 

Most importantly, we need to finish the job started in the first Trump administration of increasing access to community-based care, including mental health care, support and suicide prevention. This will require the VA to stop foot dragging and to step up efforts to require VA medical centers to coordinate with independent providers under the Fox Grant program. This will go a long way towards ensuring that vets are getting the individualized care they need. In contrast to the current overreliance on prescription medications as a panacea, it opens the door to new options such as MDMA- and psychedelic-assisted therapy for mental health issues and FDA-approved robotics technology for the disabled. 

Those one who volunteered to give their last full measure of devotion to our nation should never have to endure subpar medical care or sacrifice the benefits they have earned. I am confident that a new Trump administration will redeem this promise to our veterans. 

Jack Bergman, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, represents Michigan’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.