6/3/14 - In the wake of a national controversy, leaders from the Livingston County Veterans Affairs committee say the Veterans Administration is providing excellent service locally despite a huge jump in demand. A scandal involving falsely reporting wait times for veterans seeking medical care has led to the recent resignation of several high-ranking VA officials, including Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki. This week, the Livingston County Veterans Affairs committee put out a press release saying that although the number of veterans in Livingston County has remained roughly the same for the past ten years, the number of them seeking VA assistance has doubled. Pratt attributes this disparity to the fact that the veteran population is aging, with more Vietnam-era veterans receiving aid, as well as younger veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and developing new issues requiring VA assistance. VA officials also say many veterans have trouble finding jobs that would provide them with employer-offered insurance programs. As of October 2013, the committee says there were 2,118 Livingston County residents enrolled in Veterans Administration VA Medical care, with most of them receiving medical or prescription services through the VA hospital in Ann Arbor or one of several VA outpatient clinics in neighboring counties. The committeeâs release also states that despite the national controversy, VA wait times locally and around the country as a whole have decreased by half under Shinsekiâs leadership. It added that a bill to add 27 medical facilities across the country, including county-level outpatient clinics, was turned down earlier this year by Senate Republicans citing the $21 billion price tag. The committee called on Congress to work harder to get more VA clinics established and increase funding for the system to ensure the growing demographic is served. (TD/JK)
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