Dear Editor:

We are hearing shouts to fire Eric Shinseki, head of the Veterans Administration (VA), by the same people who voted down the VA budget request and whose states participated in the denial of Medicaid expansion for veterans. Waiting lists have been the norm for returning veterans since Vietnam. Remember, the VA only treats war-related medical problems. It took the VA 10 years before it acknowledged the medical impact of Agent Orange chemicals that were sprayed on jungles and soldiers in the area. That waiting time was too long, and many died from their diseases, or committed suicide because they could not get treatment

America goes to war without budgeting for war. The American people read newspapers, receive death notifications, but no one thinks about the impact on the VA budget. The big unknowns: Why was there a request for additional VA funds, and why was that request turned down?

VA problems include the Walter Reed Scandal under President George W. Bush, wrong diagnosis, PTSD when it was BIT (brain injury trauma), lack of needed funding, and more. We want to believe if you survive the war, you come home to safety, medical care and a chance to continue a normal life. The system, including those who vote against medical access, isn’t working. Instead, veterans come home surviving a horrific experience only to suffer more and die from the bullet of apathy.

Blaming others and not ourselves is not the answer. Blame is everyone’s burden. Maine may think we have no problems, (Togus has no secret list) but we are a state that denied veterans Medicaid access.

Why didn’t the injured and suffering veteran seek help at a civilian hospital? Did he think he could not go there because he was not covered? Maybe the first step is to permit the vet to seek emergency care and to have the non-responding VA pay the bill. The rational solution is to provide the veteran with the medical care he needs from the tax dollars we used to send him to war.

Jarryl Larson
Edgecomb
(Former wife of a Vietnam veteran who suffered from Agent Orange)