Anna Little Concerned About Veterans Claim Processing Delays

HIGHLANDS, NJ, August 9th – Anna Little, candidate for the Sixth Congressional District, expresses
serious concerns over the inability of the Federal Government to properly handle and process Veterans
health care claims. “Our veterans placed their lives in danger to serve our nation, and they deserve timely
claims processing and proper treatment to address their injuries and illnesses.”

For years, several attempts have been made to correct the Veterans Administration (VA). According to
the VA records, 5.4 million Veterans received treatment in 2011 and received $43 billion worth of
medical care. Unfortunately for our veterans seeking treatment, excessive delays have repeatedly
occurred across the nation. The media has reported that in central Texas, the average processing time for
a Veteran’s claim is more than one year at 393 days, with the national average at 254 days. Reportedly,
the VA only processed 1 million of the 1.3 million claims it received in 2011. This means that 300
thousand veterans have unprocessed claims and did not receive their requested help.
http://www.stripes.com/central-texas-veterans-face-nation-s-longest-wait...
1.184925?localLinksEnabled=false

The VA also has repeatedly lost sensitive patient data over the years, to the extent that they must file
monthly reports to Congress. The reports can be found on the VA website:
http://www.va.gov/about_va/va_notices.asp

These delays and data breaches pose dreadful nightmares for our Veterans unable to receive timely health
care treatment for their service related injuries. However, what do these problems portend for all of us
with the Federal Government poised to oversee all health care claims under the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (PPACA), aka Obamacare? If the Federal Government can not properly process 1.3
million new claims while providing services to 5.4 million veterans, how can we trust the government to
provide timely and proper services to 300 million citizens of the United States?

It is alarming that the President and his supporters in the Senate and House of Representatives have
arrogantly and willfully failed to realize the pending collapse of our health care services, in forcing
government bureaucracy to handle patient claims, once PPACA is implemented. It is clearly evident that
the VA needs to hire, train, and retain additional staff, along with continual improvement in protecting
patient data. Our Veterans have served our nation and the neglect in the VA bureaucracy is a clear
example of why we must elect a new President, Senators, and Congressional Representatives who will
repeal PPACA.

For more information about Anna Little for Congress, or to volunteer, please visit
www.annalittleforcongress.com or call 732-658-5461.